EFL: More of the exposed Outer Banks chain of island was ordered evacuated Tuesday as Tropical Storm Ophelia drifted closer to the coast of the Carolinas with pounding surf and a threat of heavy rain. Rain was scattered along the coast as Ophelia bobbed and weaved slowly to the north-northwest, with its top sustained wind staying at about 70 mph. A hurricane warning was in effect from Georgetown, S.C., to North Carolina's Cape Lookout, east of Morehead City, the National Hurricane Center said. A tropical storm warning extended north along the Outer Banks from Cape Lookout north to Oregon Inlet.
With many people on edge because of Hurricane Katrina, all residents and visitors were ordered to evacuate Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks on Tuesday, visitors already had been ordered off Ocracoke Island and 300 National Guard troops were on duty. The National Park Service closed the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. Schools were closed in several coastal counties in both North and South Carolina.
"I don't think I would be human if I said Katrina had no impact on me," Wilmington Mayor Spence Broadhurst said after calling for a voluntary evacuation. Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner declared an emergency Monday, putting state agencies to work on storm preparations. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford called for a voluntary evacuation of oceanfront and riverside areas in the northeastern part of his state.
Note: This is how professionals do it
Few people heeded Sanford's call.
"If it's bad, of course we'll leave," Sandra Hunecutt of Denver, N.C., said at Myrtle Beach, S.C. But "this is our vacation."
Sigh. Why do we even bother?
Ophelia's slow, erratic movement made it hard to predict its path, but it appeared to be headed for North Carolina, Robbie Berg, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center, said Tuesday. After reaching land, the center's latest long-range models show it veering north and east from North Carolina's Pamlico Sound, potentially crossing the Outer Banks and then moving away from the coast, Berg said. "The center could still pass very near Virginia." It could regain hurricane strength, forecasters said.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Ophelia was centered about 125 miles south of Wilmington and about 120 miles east-southeast of Charleston, S.C. It was moving north-northwest at 4 mph. A gradual turn toward the north expected during the night or on Wednesday, but continued erratic motion was likely, the hurricane center said. Ophelia became a tropical storm Wednesday off the Florida coast and later strengthened to a hurricane. It is the 15th named storm and seventh hurricane in this year's busy Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 16:01 ||
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Saw some video of fools in beach chairs watching the seas build. They just watched New Orleans drown...the first one of these idiots to screach about FEMA is gonna get smacked.
#5
Talked to my daughter this evening--- she's a Marine at Cherry Point. She says they are all being ordered home, or into shelter in the barracks, standing by just-in-case. Her opinion is that it won't be a patch on Katrina, but everyone is being extra-careful-just-in-case.
Wish they had been just as careful in Louisiana... but then, in the Carolinas, and Florida, and Mississipi (and everywhere else) they seem to have adults in charge. And adults who are OK with the concept of FEMA taking a week or so to arrive and get up to steam.
WARSAW (AFP) - A Polish do-it-yourself and hardware shop has offered an hour in a brothel to customers who spend more than 10,000 zlotys (about 3,000 dollars, 2,500 euros) on construction material, the company said.
In case they are tired of doing it themselves
"It's a case, if you like, of different strokes for different folks, in terms of doing business," said Roman Myszko, boss of the Bepol shop in Elblag, in northern Poland.
"Really different strokes cost extra"
"Nearby, there is a house of leisure, which is where the idea for this special offer came from," he told AFP. The owner of the brothel "came to our shop to buy some paintbrushes and paint. I knew immediately what her line of business was, and I talked with her (about proposing the special offer) and she agreed," Myszko told the Zycie Warszawy daily.
I kind of doubt we'll see this at Home Depot anytime soon.
Two Bepol customers have "earned themselves entry tickets" to the brothel, each valued at 100 zlotys. "They haven't used them yet," Myszko told AFP by telephone.
Saving them up for when the wife goes out of town and leaves them a long "Honey-Do" list
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 10:09 ||
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"Get yer tools polished here"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 11:31 Comments ||
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RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would deal with all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after its anticipated accession to the organization. The brief comment by Trade and Industry Minister Hashem Yamani followed a US statement that Saudi Arabia had agreed to allow trade with Israel as part of a key deal with Washington setting the stage for Riyadh to join the WTO. âThe kingdom will deal with all WTO member states when it joins the organization, in keeping with WTO agreements,â Yamani told the official SPA news agency.
And then his lips fell off.
Yamani, who heads the Saudi team to accession talks, did not mention Israel, but the United States said on Friday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to open up the country to trade with the Jewish state, which remains subject to a formal boycott by many Arab countries.
The US statement, released after Riyadh and Washington signed their trade deal, said the agreement overcomes one obstacle in that Saudi Arabia confirmed that it will allow trade with all WTO members, including Israel, despite the Arab boycott. Yamani later said that his oil-rich country expects to join the WTO by the end of the year following the conclusion of the deal with Washington.
Yamani told SPA on Monday that âthe secondary and tertiary boycott (of Israel) had lapsedâ following a cabinet decision earlier this year which was based on a resolution of a 1993 summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Saudi Arabia is a member. He did not elaborate.
The indirect boycott by Arab states of third-country firms doing business with Israel largely lapsed with the launch of the Middle East peace process in 1991. On Sunday, Saudi newspapers had quoted Yamani as saying that Saudi Arabia would not give up the boycott of Israel.
"Trade with the Jooos? Pshaw!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2005 00:06 ||
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"Today, I settle all Family biusness."
-- The Godfather
A father in a wheelchair and his son used two grenades to hijack an airliner Monday, but peacefully surrendered five hours later after allowing the crew and passengers, including one American, to leave the plane.
After speaking with government negotiators and a Roman Catholic priest while the twin-propeller plane stood on the tarmac, the two hijackers gave up and came down from the plane, said Martin Gonzalez, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority. The crew also exited, he said. I'm sure the passengers were glad that it wasn't a Wahabbi priest. BOOM!
The two men were arrested and were being tortured questioned by police, said German Navas, a congressman close to the negotiations. Speaking to reporters at the airport, Navas said the older man in the wheelchair was a former civil servant who said he hijacked the plane because he was angry after not receiving state compensation for an injury. I'm not keen on personal injury lawsuits, but compared to hijacking an airplane...
Shortly after landing in Bogota, the hijackers allowed women passengers and two babies to exit the plane and later allowed the remaining passengers off the aircraft while keeping the crew on board.
Gonzalez, the aviation authority spokesman, identified the hijackers as Luis Ramirez, about 42, and his son Linsen Ramirez, about 22.
They did not appear to belong to any of Colombia's illegal armed groups, said Gen. Alberto Ruiz, chief of operations for the National Police. "They seem to be common thugs citizens," he told reporters.
The hijackers had smuggled two grenades onto the plane. Luis Octavio Rojas, director of the Florencia airport, told The Associated Press that the hijacker's wheelchair had been too large to pass through a metal detector and that the man was not patted down by security agents, "But they did give him and the chair a visual inspection," Rojas said. It was the second time an Aires flight was hijacked on the same route. So, what are the other carriers in the area? In case I have to travel there.
A public junior high school in Japan's northern port town of Kushiro had a new item on the menu for its students Monday -- rice topped with whale curry.
The meat is from minke whales the local whalers had caught just off the coast of Kushiro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency reported. Whale meat returned to public school lunches in Kushiro, the former whaling hub about 560 miles northeast of Tokyo, last year for the first time in 38 years as part of the city-sponsored campaign to promote whale meat.
Whale meat dishes, however, are not on the menu every day. The whale curry will be served at elementary schools in town on Tuesday, and whale meat croquettes are planned in January, Kyodo said.
Japan on Friday started a seasonal hunt off Kushiro's coast as part of a research program, which whaling opponents say is little more than a thinly veiled resumption of commercial whaling. Japan's Fisheries Agency claims the hunt is aimed at pissing off Greenpeace studying the whales' feeding patterns and their effect on fish stocks.
#2
Back in the olden days, I went to Groënland with my very small rural school, spent quite some time there (about 4 weeks), and eat whale both in stews and as "chewing gum" (little dices of skin+fat to chew), eat seal, too. All in all, very good memories, even if the teacher was some kind of pedo who liked to see us kidz naked.
Now I'm fat and hapless, and I don't travel anymore, so no more whale for me.
Yup, no perspective, no future, the body of an out-of-shape 50-years old with old man's tits and an hairy butt, all my fault...
I'm depressed, I think I should go to Japan eat some whale to cheer me up.
The international election observers from Central Asia and the Caucasus were stunned by Norwegian voting conditions, and were not sure how impressed they should be by the signs of widespread public trust. The observers checking municipal voting stations noted that it was possible in several places to vote without an election card or identification, often, but not always, because a person was acquainted by controllers. The conclusion was that mutual trust was essential for Norway's elections to proceed the way they do and that cheating would be laughably easy, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.
Besides the lack of consistent identification practices, the absence of security guards at voting stations and the ability to take as many ballot papers as desired were also deemed noteworthy and slightly unsettling to observers used to strictly monitored elections. Mayor à se Hammerhei from HobÞl in Ãstfold County said that it was important for outsiders to cast a critical eye over Norway's election system. "I think it is a bit Norwegian to believe that everything is best in Norway. It isn't always so and it is exciting for someone to view us critically," Hammerhei told NRK.
Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg told NRK that it was important to remember that the election observers in Ãstfold are used to far different conditions prevailing during voting. "We must remember that those that are observers here come from a completely different background of experience, where each little opportunity to swindle and cheat must be countered by regulations and practical routines," Solberg said. Obviously has no experience dealing with Democrats
The observers present are from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova and Georgia. They are following voting in HobÞl, Spydeberg, Ski, Drammen, Eidsvoll, Bergen and Oslo.
Posted by: DanNY ||
09/13/2005 00:00 ||
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But the Leftists won (see page 2), so everything must have been OK.
Posted by: Jimmy Carter ||
09/13/2005 0:28 Comments ||
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It is the only way that the left and socialists can win it to cheat.
Sheehan claims U.S. never plans to bring troops home
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
September 12, 2005, 4:56 PM EDT
WESTFIELD, N.J. -- The California woman who won't shut up camped outside President Bush's ranch last month to harass President Bush protest the war in Iraq, which claimed her soldier son's life, said Monday she believes the U.S. never plans to leave the battle-torn country.
Cindy Sheehan spoke outside Westfield Town Hall with a Democratic congressman who called for United Nations or NATO troops to assume responsibility for 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Anyone but us...
We need to bring our troops home immediately, as soon as possible," said Sheehan, who camped outside Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to meet with him and discuss an exit strategy for the war. Winning's an exit strategy, right?
"The people running our country plan on never bringing our people home," she said.
Sheehan has drawn widespread attention and criticism, and now is on a 25-state speaking tour. She said Bush went to war under fraudulent circumstances, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, including that of her 24-year-old son, Army Spec. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Sadr City on April 4, 2004. Bush lied, no WMD's, etc..."Their mistakes cost me my oldest son," she said. "That's not an 'oops' moment; that's a tragedy, and someone needs to be held accountable for that. No, Islamic terrorist cost you your son.
"Nobody was asking George Bush the hard questions: Why are children still dying? Excuse me, children? Why are innocent Iraqis still dying? Terrorists. When there were no weapons of mass destruction, lie when it came out that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, lie why are our troops still there? Why are we taking billions of dollars from our treasury to continue this mistake of a war?" she said. Freedom's not free.
The White House press office did not immediately return a call seeking comment. But in past weeks, Bush has said he disagrees with Sheehan's call to bring the troops home now, saying that would embolden insurgents in Iraq. So would setting a timetable for withdrawal; surprised Mother Sheehan missed that trope.
Critics said Sheehan never spoke out against Bush or the war when she and other grieving families met the president about two months after her son died. Sheehan said she was still in shock over Casey's death during that meeting. Whatever, cookie...
Sheehan spoke in Westfield along with U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-Monmouth, who called for turning control of 14 of 18 Iraqi provinces over to international troops under the auspices of the United Nations or NATO, enabling large amounts of American troops to return home. Why just 14 out of 18? Shoot the works, man!
He acknowledged afterward that most of America's allies have shown little enthusiasm for the war and little ability willingness to contribute any significant numbers of troops to fight it. Pallone also said he doubts Bush will see the U.N. as an acceptable replacement for U.S. combat troops in Iraq. After all, the UN has such a proven track record in these kind of things...
"The only way it's going to happen is if opposition to the war continues to build," he said. "As that builds, maybe the president will look at an alternative that would involve the U.N." NFL - Not Fuckin' Likely.
And he wouldn't lie, would he?
WASHINGTON - September 13 - Conyers Releases Non-Partisan Congressional Research Service Report on Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina:
Report Confirms that Louisiana Took Necessary and Timely Steps
Pursuant to a September 7 request by Representative John Conyers to review the law and legal accountability relating to Federal action in response to Hurricane Katrina, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report today about whether the Governor of Louisiana took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government. The report unequivocally concludes that she did.
Congressman Conyers issued the following statement:
"This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability by shifting the blame to the Governor of Louisiana for the Administration's tragically sluggish response to Katrina. It confirms that the Governor did everything she could to secure relief for the people of Louisiana and the Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time."
In addition to finding that "...it would appear that the Governor did take the steps necessary to request emergency and major disaster declarations for the State of Louisiana in anticipation of Hurricane Katrina. (p.11)" The report found that:
* All necessary conditions for federal relief were met on August 28. Pursuant to Section 502 of the Stafford Act, "[t]he declaration of an emergency by the President makes Federal emergency assistance available," and the President made such a declaration on August 28. The public record indicates that several additional days passed before such assistance was actually made available to the State;
* The Governor must make a timely request for such assistance, which meets the requirements of federal law. The report states that "[e]xcept to the extent that an emergency involves primarily Federal interests, both declarations of major disaster and declarations of emergency must be triggered by a request to the President from the Governor of the affected state";
* The Governor did indeed make such a request, which was both timely and in compliance with federal law. The report finds that "Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005...that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to [applicable Federal statute]" and "Governor Blanco's August 27, 2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination...that 'the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster."
Well, I guess we don't need that investigation then, do we?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 16:23 ||
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And it only took a week! So we're done? Can we get back to Aruba news, now?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2005 16:42 Comments ||
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#2
Conyers is not a name I would expect to see associated with the term "Non-partisan".
I need to travel to HELL for some nice frozen ice-cream.
#3
Yes, whenever I need all my Moonbat News, Common Dreams Progressive Newswire is right there at the top of my viewing list.
And speaking of investigations there, congressman, did ya ever figure out what happened with those Thanksgiving turkeys? Why don't you get the Non-Partisan Congressional Research Service right on that? It only took them a couple of weeks to figure out New Orleans, so I figure we'll have an answer like tomorrow, right?
#4
What is sad is that people of his ilk (LLL Moonbats) donât realize how stupid that actually sound to the majority of Americans. Also itâs sad that Conyers and his ilk will most certainly be re-elected by the moonbats they represent. This is just like the âMock Impeachmentâ hearing he held with a lineup of moonbats from around the country, even CSPAN cut coverage after they realized what a kangaroo court they were covering.
#7
"This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability by shifting the blame to the Governor of Louisiana for the Administration's tragically sluggish response to Katrina...the Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time."
Oh yeah, non partisan and definitely non biased as well.
Posted by: Andy ||
09/13/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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#8
If Conyers read it, it must be in small words, extry large print and lotsa pictures. Stupid racist partisan f*&k
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/13/2005 21:31 Comments ||
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Edward Whelan
September 12, 2005, 8:07 a.m.
The Roberts Hearing
A preview of coming detractions.
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee begins its hearing on President Bush's nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court. The dramatic developments of Labor Day weekend â the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, President Bush's sudden new nomination of Roberts to succeed his former boss as chief justice, and the resulting reopening of the vacancy left by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation â will give added attention to the Roberts confirmation hearing.
But these developments will not alter the three fundamental dynamics of the hearing: (1) While feigning openmindedness at the outset of the hearing, the committee's Democrats will harshly attack Roberts. (2) Roberts's primary strategic goal will be to secure Chairman Arlen Specter's support, not to appease Democrats. (3) And the other Republican senators on the committee will face a choice between the politically safe and lazy course of defending Roberts entirely on neutral grounds and the jurisprudentially sound course of advancing the arguments for judicial restraint.
{SNIP}
2. Chairman Specter. As a stellar Supreme Court advocate, John Roberts knew how to find the five votes he needed for victory. He will recognize that his surest path to Senate confirmation is not to try to appease Democrats but to hold his Republican majority. And the key to that, like it or not, is winning the support of Specter, the liberal Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the committee, without losing the support of conservative Republicans. That shouldn't be a particularly difficult balancing act because Specter, in order to hold on to his chairmanship, wants to support Roberts, and Roberts will have plenty of leeway to provide Specter the broad expressions of respect for Congress's constitutional role that Specter is seeking. So expect Roberts to be particularly respectful of Specter's concerns. And expect Specter to announce his support for Roberts at the end of the hearing.
How tolerant Specter will be of the Democrats' antics is another question. Will he keep Democrats from badgering Roberts? When Schumer makes clear that he is ready to exceed the unlimited time for questions that he seems to think that Specter has promised him, will Specter be ready to shut him down?
Specter just now kept telling Sen. Bagogas (DROWNED GIRL-MA) Kennedy (DEM-MA)
to shut up and let Roberts answer at least seven times! Arlen may sometines stray, but so far he has done well.
{SNIP}
Seeking the easiest path to reelection, committee Republicans may be tempted merely to paint Roberts as a genial moderate and emphasize his impeccable credentials. But if they do not respond to the Democrats' attacks on Roberts â and to the "balance" argument â by defending principles of judicial restraint, they will make the president's next nomination more difficult and undermine the very reason that so many voters elected them in the first place.
The Roberts confirmation hearing is a prelude to the upcoming fight over the other vacancy. If Democrats are able to smear, and vote against, Roberts without paying a political price for it, they will be emboldened in that next fight.
Bagogas nearly blew a gasket, and was breathing heavily!
#1
NRO has a blog on the hearings, for those who need to know all the details. Also as an RSS feed.
example: oh good heavens[ 09/13 12:40 PM]
John "Neanderthal" Roberts just actually had to explain to Joe Biden that he thinks that women are full citizens.
#2
So far, judging from the Senators questions and comments, they could have dispensed with the charade of confirmation hearings as none of the Democrats are going to vote for Roberts. They cam in with their minds already made up.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/13/2005 15:08 Comments ||
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By Sher Zieve - Fox News and the Dallas Morning News report that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has left the state of Louisiana. Moving to Dallas, TX he has purchased a home in that city and has enrolled his daughter in a Dallas school.
She going to ride the bus to school?
Although Mayor Nagin appeared on a number of Sunday talk shows, including Tim Russert's Meet the Press, he was not questioned about his move and the subject never came up.
Since they couldn't find a way to blame Bush for the move, I'm not surprised
In his first trip to Louisiana since last Wednesday, Nagin flew back to the state on Sunday. He joined President Bush on Monday, as the president fielded questions on the rescue and recovery efforts.
More from NOLA.com:
In a stark reminder of how drastically Hurricane Katrina has impacted the lives of New Orleanians, Mayor Ray Nagin has purchased a home for his family in Dallas and enrolled his young daughter in school there.
Nagin, who spoke with The Times-Picayune by telephone from Dallas, where he has been since Wednesday, said he planned to return to New Orleans on Saturday. He said he will remain in the Crescent City while his family lives for the next six months in Dallas, making occasional visits to his family when possible.
Someone in another blog commented that we don't know why he picked Dallas and not another city in LA. Maybe he or his wife have family there or other ties. Still, being gone from New Orleans that long doesn't show a lot of leadership.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 10:25 ||
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It's a lot easier to get the school bus drivers to work in Dallas. So, move to University Park, Ray?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/13/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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#2
YA,they even work on sunny days,SOBER TOO!!!!!!!
Let me introduce, from the state of New York, the US Senate's most self-important member...
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, September 13, 2005; A07
Yesterday's opening of the John Roberts confirmation hearings was a time for historic firsts.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) made 49 first-person references in a 10-minute statement that was, ostensibly, not about himself. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) showed exceptional emotional versatility, working a crossword puzzle during the hearing and then choking back a sob while making a prosaic statement about partisanship. Oh, boy. Grow a pair.
Roberts delivered what may have been the shortest opening statement by a modern Supreme Court nominee -- less than seven minutes, including the thank-yous and two baseball metaphors.
But in the end, the confirmation kickoff was anticlimactic: As word spread through the gallery midway through the session that FEMA Director Michael D. Brown had quit, reporters knew the Roberts story would, once again, be a sideshow. Karl Rove, Super Genius! Roberts may well be confirmed as chief justice of the Supreme Court, but in the case before the court of public attention, in re: Katrina v. Roberts , the defendant doesn't have a chance. "The defense rests."
With the nation distracted by the hurricane and flooding down south, neither left nor right nor middle displayed much energy. By 10:30 a.m., only 170 people had shown up for public tickets to witness the noon proceedings -- making unnecessary the plastic cordons and the queue signs leading almost all the way to Union Station. Outside the Russell Senate Office Building at 11 a.m., a grand total of 21 people demonstrated against Roberts, chanting: "Two-four-six-eight, separation of church and state!"
Even inside the storied Senate Caucus Room -- scene of the Teapot Dome, McCarthy and Watergate hearings -- some were preoccupied with Katrina.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the committee's ranking Democrat, led off with an observation that the hurricane was "a tragic reminder of why we have a federal government." Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said, in one of three references, "Katrina tore away the mask that has hidden from public view the many Americans who are left out and left behind." Spotted elsewhere - Kenndy should not comment on things involving cars that are under water.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), opening the hearing, called the confirmation "perhaps the biggest challenge of the decade." But at times it appeared to be a swearing-in ceremony. Before the hearing, Kennedy shook the hand of Jane Roberts and said to the nominee's wife, "Congratulations." Let's hope Arlen's on our side for this one.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) seemed to be taking confirmation for granted when he listed a range of issues likely to come before the court and told Roberts, repeatedly, "You will rule on that." In the park across the street from the Russell Building, a modest but confident group of conservatives sipped from water bottles labeled "Roberts YES." Sounds like Biden's giving Roberts a pass.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who had the job of formally introducing Roberts to the committee, offered some advice to the nominee's playful young son, Jack: "You can wiggle a little bit. Don't worry." Wiggle it, just a little bit!
As it happens, that was similar to the advice GOP members offered. In their 10-minute opening statements, they repeatedly urged him not to answer questions about his views.
"Don't take the bait," suggested Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said it is "patently false" that Roberts must provide answers. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) thought it could be "unethical." The Ginsburg defense - can't say squat about it if it's gonna come up.
Democrats were almost as uniform in the opposite view. "It is our duty to ask questions," Kennedy replied.
"It is not undignified to ask questions," submitted Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.).
"It is our obligation to ask and your obligation to answer," Schumer said.
Roberts sat still, shoulders slightly rounded, moving his head thoughtfully from side to side, and keeping a polite gaze on each speaking senator; after three hours of this, the nominee shamed the lawmakers with a brief speech blending jurisprudence and the national pastime. "I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat," he said. Heh...
Specter, determined to keep the proceedings on schedule, even cut himself off at the 10-minute mark, saying, "I'm down to 10 seconds . . . that's it."
But there were unscripted moments. Cornyn and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) spent a chunk of the afternoon whispering and joking. A woman in a 19th-century hat and dress sat in the back of the room wearing a "Women for Roberts" sticker. After Feingold predicted longevity for the 50-year-old nominee because he looks "healthy," Coburn, a doctor, said that cannot be predicted without a "physical exam or a family history" -- neither of which is on this week's hearing schedule.
A television camera behind Coburn caught the senator working a crossword puzzle. But Coburn went from detachment to emotional overdrive when it was his turn to talk; seconds after asserting that "a super-legislator body is not what the court was intended to be," he paused and wept.
Colleagues looked alarmed. One GOP committee aide put his hand to his mouth. It was the biggest Senate choke-up since Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) cried while opposing the nomination of the ambassador to the United Nations -- and Coburn has to get through three more days of hearings. If it takes ths spotlight off Roberts, by all means cry every day!
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Rudyard Kipling
#1
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Interesting you should post that poem this morning.
Last night my son wrecked my car. He walked away without even a scratch, but the car is in serious trouble. Without it, I have maybe about 72 hrs before I'll lose my job, which relies on me to have a working car. My son's attitude is "Gee, that's bad - but how am I going to drive to my party this weekend?" I only had liability on the car, so getting it repaired may not be an option. My ex-wife-to-be has made it very clear that she has no intention of cutting me any slack so I can dig out of this mess.
The point to all this is that I was sitting here feeling thoroughly sorry for myself...and then you posted 'If'. I know it was for the President - and for all his power and prestige, he will make decisions that he will have to take to his grave, decisions that make my mess look like a walk in the park.
I needed to read that this morning...more than you're ever going to know. I owe you one. I know this is a bit of bandwidth, but I hope the Esteemed Moderators will forgive. I wouldn't have felt right not saying thank you. Now I need to get to work and fix things.
Thanks-
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/13/2005 8:58 Comments ||
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#3
Second quote of kipling's IF today. My mother (god bless her soul) recited it to me as a young child many times. It was good advice.
#4
Mike, we certainly hope that you can work your way through these problems and get back on your feet quickly. I really liked both the poem and the quote. I wonder how Teddy's speech was received at the Sorbonne?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/13/2005 10:08 Comments ||
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#7
No problem Mike.
Sounds like the son is almost of age of being a man. Let him shoulder some of the car situation. Great time for him to learn about stuff like that too. You'd be amazed at how teenage boys can take a wreck and turn it into a half way decent ride.
Keep me posted and let me know if I can help! If you or your son decide to start a little side business I can help you guys put together a web site. Anything I can do, just holler!
#8
Second that Mike, where do you live. I might be able to help if you're anywhere near Mobile Alabama
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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#9
3rd that, Mike. Just let us know.
Short term, how about something like Rent a Wreck? Cheap and very ugly, but they go. And make the lad pay, even if he has to get a job. He's trying to take advantage of your pending legal situation -- typical kid behaviour, but not ok at a time like this.
Several black civil rights leaders are accusing the federal government of conspiring against poor African Americans in the aftermath of the flooding in New Orleans. But one of those hurling the charges, comedian and political activist Dick Gregory, on Friday refused to say what, if anything, he has personally contributed to the relief effort. Gregory, who had just visited evacuees at the Houston Astrodome and the city's convention center, said he was able offer the flood victims something else besides money and food.
"I'm a hero in America, so just to go there and touch them, means a lot to them. [That] means more than taking them to the Red Cross and giving them food," Gregory told Cybercast News Service. Gregory did not reply to the question about whether he had made a personal donation. "I'm a hero in America." Anyone besides me have no idea who he is?
Earlier, Gregory participated in a rally in front of the White House with leaders of the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN) and Black Voices for Peace. They charged that the Bush administration delayed rescue efforts of the flood victims because of racism and class-ism. The Network's co-chair Donele Edwards laid the specific blame at the doorstep of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps, she charged, "deliberately designed the floodwaters to go into the 9th Ward," of New Orleans. Are you sure it wasn't the 19th Ward?
Damu Smith, founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, added that "whether they (the federal government) got in a room and conspired or not, what they did is they ignored us, they forgot about us ... because we look like we look." As he was speaking, Smith held out his arm to show his skin color. New Orleans' mayor, Ray Nagin, who is African American, should bear little responsibility for the city's flooding, Smith said. Naturally. If the facts don't fit, ignore them.
"I think Mayor Nagin has done everything he could. He's cried out, but I really think the governor, and Bush especially, they really dropped the ball on this," according to Smith. Louisiana Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco is white. "There's been some mistakes made by folks in the mayor's office, too," Smith said. "But the most of the blame must be laid at the doorstep of Bush and Governor Blanco." Of course it should. Word up.
Smith said he had personally contributed "a lot" to aid in the recovery efforts. "I have friends who lost their homes and lost everything and they've been displaced so this is very personal to me to help out so we gotta do it." He encouraged people to donate to small organizations instead of the American Red Cross. "You see, the Red Cross is getting all the money - about $500 million - but there are groups in Houston and other places that are struggling, that are helping people," Smith said. "They don't get the money, so we're gonna make sure the money gets channeled to them as well." How can that be? When I was at Wal-Mart this afternoon, the woman collecting for Red Cross was white, so naturally I assumed they were The Enemy. This is confusing.
Gregory intensified Edwards' conspiracy charges, accusing the government of orchestrating the evacuation to access oil under the city. I knew it was all about the oil!
"It (Hurricane Katrina) didn't hit, it went down the Gulf," Gregory said. "And nobody is asking, if it missed, where's this damn water coming from? Who shut them pumps off and who's going to investigate those two barges with dynamite on them that hit that levee," he said in reference to the failure of the city's levees and water pumps, which were intended to protect the city from flooding. I find your ideas fascinating and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Gregory said the government has no plans to let residents back into New Orleans or to rebuild the city. "They will have no problem declaring that whole city a disaster area because of the mold," he said. "Last Friday he (U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert) said there's no need to rebuild it, plow it under," Gregory said, exaggerating the comments Hastert made immediately after the city was flooded. "Well that's what they're planning on doing," Gregory added. If his accusations are correct, Gregory told Cybercast News Service, it will create a backlash beyond just the black community. "If they found oil under there and they're going to turn it into an oil well," Gregory said, "that's black and white folks." I had no idea Karl Rove was this good.
In time, as people stop reacting based on emotion (chuckle), Gregory concluded, "It's gonna come out. There's been too many mistakes." "We're on to you, Whitey!"
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/13/2005 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Bush hates UFOs and space aliens, protest planned.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/13/2005 1:11 Comments ||
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#2
comedian and political activist Dick Gregory
...When was the last time he said something INTENTIONALLY funny?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/13/2005 1:47 Comments ||
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#3
Evidence? we doan need no steenking evidence.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 2:36 Comments ||
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#4
Dick Gregory was a one-trick-pony ("pays attention to my amusing black rage"), Cosby-clone comedian in the sixties. In the seventies he made millions by selling vitamin laced wheat-germ at over-inflated prices, to poor blacks. Gregory also told self deprecating fat jokes when he weighed 350 pounds. And he deliberately toned down his East Village oriented angry-black act, to satisfy Ed Sullivan Show producers.
Reality dictates: the lowest areas in East New Orleans were the highest populated by blacks.
Thousands were picked up off rooftops, but with as many as 100,000 houses in the east, lifesaving work took time. Could the National Guard have done more? Yeah, if the State Governor signed the papers.
.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
09/13/2005 2:38 Comments ||
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#5
I don't know about the rest of you but my sympathy level for NOLA blacks is steadily decreasing toward zero.
Posted by: mac ||
09/13/2005 5:35 Comments ||
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#6
who's going to investigate those two barges with dynamite on them that hit that levee
Oh God. You don't imagine he actually believes that, do you?
I guess it doesn't matter. If they're saying it this publicly, it's probably the Pravda on "urban radio".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 7:39 Comments ||
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#7
Mac, why limit the decline to blacks?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/13/2005 8:33 Comments ||
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#8
Dick Gregory was big in, like, 1966. I honestly thought he was dead.
Of the 'refugees' taken in at Albuquerque the local news reporters could only find one family that intended to go back. All the rest have been 'resettled' in housing, provided basic necessities, and have jobs interviews or jobs already lined up. The emergency 'refugee' center at the convention center closed last week as it no longer had any occupants and the Red Cross notified city officials that no more where being sent. This is more like the Silesian Germans who were driven out of their lands and homes by Russians and Poles, only to resettle in West Germany in the post-war period. Absorbed into the population rather than segregated into UN ghettos.
The limitation is because I have yet to see any LA whites whining about how the government failed to help them and how it's all GWB's fault. I spent a lot of time down there some years back and got a pretty good understanding of how NOLA in particular and Louisiana in general work.
The first major point I learned is that most people in NOLA, and certainly every white person I knew down there, understood perfectly well that they were living in a bowl underneath sea level and that if the levees failed they were in for a world of hurt. It was something mentioned on the news or in the print media on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, particularly during hurricane season. Anyone who was there for more than a few days couldn't avoid knowing this. My contacts either planned to get out before a hurricane or had made extensive preparations for dealing with flooding. Most planned the former.
It's also worth noting that none of them trusted either the current Mayor or his thug predecessors, the Morials, to do anything but steal as much as they could as fast as they could. This is not a racial slam; the Louisianians I knew also used to say some hilariously derogatory things about Edwin Edwards, the white LA governor who was indicted, IIRC, eighteen times before he was convicted of something. Edwards is the guy who stated "The only way I can lose an election in this state is if they catch me in bed with either a live boy or a dead girl."
My LA friends knew their politicians of both races were crooks and charlatans and often referred to Louisiana as "the northernmost banana republic." The difference is that the white folks, for the most part, realized that they were in a precarious situation just by virtue of living in NOLA and that if worse came to worst, they were on their own. They planned accordingly.
The black folks you see on TV are the same characters that have been living off crime and welfare for generations in places like the Desire housing project. They're the ones who are pissed that the people who always made certain their welfare check got there on time let some minor inconvenience like a CAT 5 hurricane disrupt the delivery system. Consequently a lot of them seemed to believe that the difficulties they suffered through their own refusal to take responsibility for themselves justified looting, rape, robbery and murder in Katrina's aftermath. Of course, the preceding sentence begs the question of why many of them were doing those things at every opportunity BEFORE Katrina but that's a different topic. Sympathy for them from me? Not bloody likely!
Posted by: mac ||
09/13/2005 9:32 Comments ||
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#12
I have sympathy for the people stuck in the hospital and the nursing homes that were too sick to leave. I have sympathy for those that left and now have nothing. For everyone else that stayed there I have none.
#13
The limitation is because I have yet to see any LA whites whining about how the government failed to help them and how it's all GWB's fault.
I've seen a few, including one or two at NRO.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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#14
I saw him in the late 1970s and he was pretty funny, but also crazy as a loon. What I most remember is that he prattled on about how the government had weather-control machines that, IIRC, he said were being weaponized. I am surprised he hasn't been ranting about how Katrina was deliberately caused by the evil chimp Bushitler.
#15
Dick Gregory was big in, like, 1966. I honestly thought he was dead.
Bush hates dead black people too.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/13/2005 12:07 Comments ||
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#16
Kayne West made the cover of Time Magazine. The headline read, "Class Act". I was in the Shaman's office and still LOL'd.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/13/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#17
FEMA totally screwed up and Bush is taking the deserved hits. However, elections are two sided and with antics like these hit the other side will come out hit harder.
If the left had stuck with the facts they could have gained traction. Lies and this propaganda make them a worse cure than the problem.
#18
Now here's a conspiracy-theory for ya:
http://www.flashnews.com/news/wfn1050908J5463.html
Weatherman Claims Japanese Mafia Behind Hurricane Katrina
POCATELLO, Idaho (Wireless Flash) â Hereâs a theory thatâs sure to cause a storm of controversy: A meteorologist in Pocatello, Idaho, claims Japanese gangsters known as the Yakuza caused Hurricane Katrina.
Scott Stevens says after looking at NASA satellite photos of the hurricane, heâs is convinced it was caused by electromagnetic generators from ground-based microwave transmitters.
The generators emit a soundwave between three and 30 megahertz and Stevens claims the Russians invented the storm-creating technology back in 1976 and sold it to others in the late 1980s.
Stevens says the clouds formed by the generators are different than normal clouds and are able to appear out of nowhere and says Katrina had many rotation points that are unusual for hurricanes.
At least ten nations and organizations possess the technology but Stevens suspects the Japanese Yakuza created Katrina in order to make a fortune in the futures market and to get even with the U.S. for the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima.
Stevens will discuss the storm creation theory tomorrow night (Sep. 9) on an internet radio show at www.thesciencedetective.com
Bullshit. They beat their past speed for moving supplies into the area. Maybe the appointees didn't make the weepy speeches people wanted, but the mechanism worked as well as can be hoped.
Don't believe me? Ask yourself why Mississippi and Alabama disappeared from the news coverage. *THEY* didn't block the Red Cross and Salvation Army (who work with FEMA) from providing people with food, water, and shelter. *THEY* didn't dither until it was too late to evacuate. *THEY* worked with FEMA, instead of trying to block it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 15:33 Comments ||
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#20
I believe you hit a homer, RC. Mississippi had much worse damage than New Orleans, and so did Alabama but they did work within the system instead of trying to micro-manage every aspect of the relief.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/13/2005 16:24 Comments ||
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#23
No worries, by the time faracon is done, the "refugees" will be picking cotton.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/13/2005 20:11 Comments ||
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#24
OK so is it clear to me that these folks need to KEEP wearing their aluminum foil lined hats. I think the Red Cross should force all celebs to wear them for safety.
As I understand it the levee was deliberately designed to fail in certain areas, control points, and at the time the areas had no houses so if they failed people could be evacuated in time but the corrupt leaders in NA overloked that little fact when they sold the land.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
09/13/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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#25
Conspiracy: George Bush Doesnât Care About Black Peopleâ¢
prolly true 'cause....
I know he don't care about me me me, cause I voted for him twice and sent him money and went way way ape shit during the 2000 election, and a little less way way apeshit 2004, and still to this day, he hasn't called me or mine on the phone!
<(
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/13/2005 20:31 Comments ||
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Crisis talks on human rights and UN management reform ahead of the world summit have fallen apart, a spokesman for the US mission to the UN says. "These two issues, management and human rights council, have currently collapsed," said Rick Grenell, spokesman for the US mission to the UN, as a core group raced against the clock to finalise a draft document for the 14-16 September summit of world leaders. "With the last-minute gutting of the human rights council just when we worked through development and other issues, the full document is in jeopardy," he added.
But ... but ... but how can we protect human rights without the vigilance of the United Nations??
The US spokesman said a certain number of countries were now objecting to two key criteria set for the creation of a revamped UN human rights council to replace the current, discredited Human Rights Commission. "Certain countries have decided that the two-thirds majority vote of the General Assembly criteria to get on the human rights council is not acceptable, that a simple majority should be the rule... That's troubling to us," Grenell said. Grenell said these countries were also objecting to the proposed human rights council sitting as a permanent body of the UN. "What we would like to see is a drastic change in the way the human rights council operates, and by gutting the criteria for membership, by trying to make it a non-standing, non-permanent committee ... it's frustrating," Grenell said. A US official named the countries which raised the objections as Egypt, China, Russia and Pakistan. The proposal on the table was for a standing meeting of the Human Rights Council throughout the year, instead of the annual six-week session that the current commission holds. The reform proposals follow accusations that the current Human Rights Commission is dominated by countries with a record of abuse and riven by political bargaining that undermines effective action on human rights.
"On management [reform], we also have also fallen apart," Grenell said. Grenell said UN management reform had been called for by the independent panel that documented corruption and management lapses in the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq as well as by UN chief Kofi Annan and Western countries. "What we would like to see is more powers given to the secretary-general, hold him accountable. Give him the ability to prioritise mandates, prioritise personnel and then hold him accountable," Grenell said. "We cannot have the general assembly continue to operate with business as usual."
Other issues being negotiated by the core group are development, terrorism, responsibility to protect peoples threatened with genocide, and setting up a peace-building commission.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh-oh! They're "crisis talks"?
Better break out the good silverware...
#2
No need to break it out. Everyone at the UN has silverware.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/13/2005 10:26 Comments ||
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#3
Dear Kofi,
Due to the recent hurricane disaster in the southern US and your inability to keep the UN staff from stealing everything that isn't tied down and accepting bribes from every tinpot dictator on the planet; we will be suspending our annual dues of $2 billion for the foreseeable future. Have a nice day.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at FEMA on Tuesday, complaining the agency is moving too slowly in recovering the bodies of those killed by Hurricane Katrina. The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said at state police headquarters in Baton Rouge. She said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency still has not signed a contract with the company hired to handle the removal of the bodies, Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency Services.
"You've got to find more bodies! Thousands of bodies! My career in the Democratic Party depends on it!"
Calls to a FEMA spokesman in New Orleans and the Homeland Security Department in Washington were not immediately returned.
It's not like she returned their calls before Katrina hit.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 15:47 ||
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#1
She just can't seem to shut he yap.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2005 16:00 Comments ||
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#2
Couldn't do much of anything all to well to help her people prepare for the inevitable and it's aftermath but boy she sure knows how to complain and point the finger like a natural. A rolemodel for all future pathetic political figures surely. I have no doubt her powers of self delusion will serve her well in living out the rest of her life ignoring her shameful role in what happened to the state and the people she took an oath to protect and serve. Somebody would really be doing her a favor should they break her jaw immediately.
#5
here again she shows just how helpless she really is. Why can't SHE get this done? She is so incompetant she couldn't find her ass if it had a bell stuck up it. Is the State of Louisiana that totally dependant on the Feds?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/13/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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#6
The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said ...
So maybe she doesn't want CNN to video the search for the dead either?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2005 16:35 Comments ||
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#7
Last night CNN tried to ambush a National Guard unit on body retrieval duty. The camera crew went thru the yellow caution tape near a house. A young Guardsman came over and asked them to leave. The reporter (Anderson Cooper???) said "absolutely not, we have a court order, here (pulls out a cell phone)...d'ya want to talk to our lawyer in Atlanta?"
And I thought my God, what are you DOING threatening to sic Atlanta lawyers on a man with who is up to his armpits in steamy putrid DEATH ?
#9
So is she going to go help with the effort? I have never seen such do nothing whiners in my life. How about you (Gov) and your staff augment the people working the recovery effort? I bet with your assistance this could be wrapped up by next weekend.
#11
I just wish the NG trooper had asked Mr. Cooper to "put down the microphone and give us a hand. We got two big ones in here. Grab this leg, willya?"
Mr. Cooper, of course, would have fainted, hit the water, aspirated, gotten a nasty intestinal and pulmonary infection and then (as we'd all pray) get sepsis. Heh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2005 17:58 Comments ||
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#12
Next time CNN tries that with the National Guard, the Guardsman should pull out a cross and a string of garlic. That usually works in those circumstances.
#15
Why is it that the donks are sooooo preoccupied with dead bodies?
Someone needs to bitch slap the gov
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/13/2005 18:53 Comments ||
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#16
HOW FUCKING DARE SHE?!
That ignorant, bile-filled bitch. That utterly disgusting piece of human slime.
Someone needs to take her aside, and between strikes with a nail-studded baseball bat, tell her of DMORT. How people spend weeks away from their families in order to ensure the dead are treated with respect.
Goddamned bitch. Just watch Democrats rally behind her, intent on scoring any points they can against the President while protecting the incompetents, criminals, and outright traitors in their midst.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 22:02 Comments ||
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#17
The reporter (Anderson Cooper???) said "absolutely not, we have a court order, here (pulls out a cell phone)...d'ya want to talk to our lawyer in Atlanta?"
I'd have said "sure", accepted the phone, walked into the house, and make sure the reporter got a phone back that made him perfectly aware of what it means to deal with corpses.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 22:05 Comments ||
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#18
Trivia: Anderson Cooper is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt.
Posted by: ed ||
09/13/2005 22:47 Comments ||
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This is funny, can't decide myself if this is truly pathetic (photo op anyone?) or a show of good will. It would be funnier if this was Micheal Moore caught packing... oh wait, that wouldn't be right, for him it's his bodyguards who are packing heat.
Actor: 'I care about this city, and I want to help'
While actor Sean Penn made international headlines last week for springing a leak in his "relief boat" in New Orleans, the Oscar-winner was also spotted armed with a shotgun in the Big Easy.
Sean Penn, left, seen carrying a shotgun in New Orleans (New York Post)
A photograph plastered on the cover of the New York Post Saturday shows a pump-action shotgun in Penn's right hand and a flak jacket in his left, with a story inside titled, "Ballistic River."
"It was in the boat, and he picked it up and carried it," Penn spokeswoman Mara Buxbaum told the Post, noting the weapon did not belong to him. "It was in the midst of helping three or four people who were being rescued, whom he brought to the hospital."
The man who snapped the picture, Edward Keating, was surprised to see someone carrying a weapon in the Garden District in broad daylight, and was further stunned when he became aware it was the star of "Mystic River" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
"I was like 'Oh, Jesus, wow,'" he said.
And when Keating asked Penn what he was doing, Penn only said, "I care about the people, and I care about this city, and I want to help."
Today, the public has a variety of reactions to the Post's coverage of "Shotgun Sean":
I am no fan of Sean Penn, but I am a fan of anyone who gets up off his butt and answers a call for help. (David Seger, Knoxville, Tenn.)
If this had been any of your noted Republican actors, such as Mel Gibson, James Woods or Clint Eastwood, they would be bashed by every liberal news agency, from the New York Times to CNN. (Joseph O'Keefe, Manhattan)
Say what you want about Penn's acting abilities and political views, he is a caring American, and that's most important. (James Ring, Ossining, N.Y.)
Penn, running through what's left of New Orleans and carrying a shotgun, doesn't make me feel more secure. We cops used to say that anyone who just happens to have a photographer nearby to chronicle his or her heroics is probably a better actor than he is a cop. I don't think much of Penn as an actor, but I suspect he's not a heroic individual â just someone who wants to grab a little publicity between his mediocre movies. (Michael Gorman, Whitestone, N.Y.)
While President Bush safely zoomed above the ruins of New Orleans in the comfort and security of Air Force One, Penn was soaked to the skin, toting a rifle and wading through toxic sludge. He was determined to be in the thick of the action instead of being a mere bystander to the unfolding tragedy. Penn should run for president in 2008. He has earned my vote for having more guts than this nation's political stooges. (Sharon Rutman, Far Rockaway, N.Y.)
Penn has made headlines before with firearms.
During his 1985 wedding ceremony to Madonna, he allegedly fired a gun at paparazzi who were trying to photograph the event from a helicopter.
In 2003, Penn came under fire when it became public he had obtained a permit for concealed weapons due to threats from a disgruntled worker, and that two of the guns were stolen along with his car.
Meanwhile, Penn's current wife, actress Robin Wright Penn, perhaps best known for her title role as "The Princess Bride," is blasting journalists who ridiculed Sean's trip to New Orleans.
"I think it's f---ing pathetic to be belittling him," Wright Penn told the New York Daily News.
"Do we have to go to the bowels of infantile behavior?" she demanded. "Here people are dying, and if it wasn't Sean Penn going crazy watching CNN and saying, 'I have to do something' â but instead it was 'Joe Smith from Morgan City' â then those people would be thanking him, not attacking him."
#2
I don't know what the big deal is. He is one of the few civilians who have a CCW license from the city of San Francisco. The papers reported it years ago.
#8
Now on top of having Mo, Larry and Curly (Nagin, Blanko and Landrieu) as thier "leaders" the people of New Orleans have to worry about getting shot by some struting peacock. Does he remind anyone of another struting peacock. Hint - did you know he was in Viet Nam?
#5
Here's hoping the pro-fascist/jihadist lefties don't shout Hitchens down - the posters I've seen at the school advertising the debate are ALL pro-Galloway, sponsored by Democracy Now, part of the "Stand Up and Be Counted: No to War and Occupation" tour.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/13/2005 13:53 Comments ||
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#6
"Mr. Galloway, debating against the war, is a highly respected Member of Parliament who recently electrified the U.S. ..."
"Mr. Hitchens, debating pro-war is a widely published polemicist and frequent radio and TV commentator."
It seems like the people putting this on have already decided the outcome.
Officials at Amtrak say they offered to run a special train out of New Orleans that could have evacuated hundreds of residents hours before Hurricane Katrina struck - but city officials turned the offer down.
"We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm's way," Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black told the Washington Post on Sunday. "The city declined." The train had room for "several hundred passengers," the Post said. But it left loaded only with railroad equipment - destined for higher and drier ground.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Sunday he had no idea what Black was talking about. I don't know where that's coming from," he told NBC's "Meet the Press." "Amtrak never contacted me to make that offer. As a matter of fact, we checked the Amtrak lines for availability, and every available train was booked, as far as the report that I got, through September. So I'd like to see that report."
Nagin also offered a new explanation as to why he didn't press hundreds of city buses into service to aid in evacuation efforts. "Sure, here was lots of buses out there," he told "Meet the Press." "But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome."
The New Orleans Democrat had a different excuse tens days ago, when asked about using his city's bus fleet. "One of the briefings we had they were talking about getting, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here," he told WWL Radio. "I'm like - you've got to be kidding me. This is a natural disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans." Asked about the buses two days before his "Meet the Press" interview, Nagin told NBC's "Dateline": "I dont know. That is question for somebody else."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 09:55 ||
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#1
Nagin needs to crawl back into a hole.Every time he opens his mouth STUPIDITY EXOUDS!!!!!
I still can't beleive he is actually a mayor!! Good ol' PASS THE BUCK!!
Two trains originate in New Orleans every day: the Crescent which goes to NYC and the City of New Orleans (the one the song's about) to Chicago. The Miami-Los Angeles Sunset also goes through NO. On any given day, there will be enough equipment (diesels, passenger cars, mail cars) sitting in NO to make up the consists for that day's City and Crescent plus a few spare cars and maybe a diesel or two as "protection" in case something on one of the three trains breaks down.
The last train out was run to get this equipment out of the flood zone. It probably had a capacity of more than a thousand people, particularly if people were put in what is normally "nonrevenue" space (lounge seats, dining tables) and baggage cars. Amtrak's "booking" wouldn't apply to this train because it's not a regular revenue run. There's no legitimate reason why it couldn't have carried people.
Also, IIRC, New Orleans Union Terminal is within walking distance of the Superdome.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/13/2005 11:50 Comments ||
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#4
How can someone be mayor when he and his family now lives in Dallas?
Oh, never mind, we are talking about New Orleans.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/13/2005 12:02 Comments ||
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#5
Glad to see the Railroad has a plan, Now that you mention it i've noticed a huge multi-axle Heavy Hauler railcar parked on a siding in Pensacola is missing. (Too big and heavy to wash away)
Makes sense that they'd haul it out of danger for later use, bet it's getting used right now.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 12:25 Comments ||
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#6
Here's his latest moment in the sun: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says the hurricane-devastated city is bankrupt and is scrambling for loans to pay its employees through the end of the year. "Technically today we're out of cash," Nagin told reporters in Baton Rouge. "The city is bankrupt ... We have no money."
He said the city spent its last available cash last week on city employee payroll and was seeking bank loans, federal assistance and other means of financing to continue paying its bills and staff, the New Orleans Times Picayune reported Tuesday.
However, Nagin was emphatic state and federal officials would not railroad through city reconstruction until it had passed city muster. "I don't want anybody outside of New Orleans planning nothing as it relates to how we're going to rebuild this city without us signing off on it," Nagin said.
Just wants his piece of the action
Posted by: Steve ||
09/13/2005 12:26 Comments ||
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#7
This will make the Big Dig look like Sunday School...
#8
You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans.
See, Mayor, here's the thing -- those bus drivers? They'd have been in the FRONT of the bus. They'd have been the FIRST ONES out. They really wouldn't have had to "stay behind", unlike the people you abandoned in their stead.
But, hey, I guess the bus drivers have a tougher union.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 12:33 Comments ||
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#9
However, Nagin was emphatic state and federal officials would not railroad through city reconstruction until it had passed city muster. "I don't want anybody outside of New Orleans planning nothing as it relates to how we're going to rebuild this city without us signing off on it," Nagin said.
Steve:
Just wants his piece of the action
Certainly. It's a time-honored tradition.
There was an interesting post over at ProteinWisdom on some speculation that the levee breaks were not due to overlapping, but failure of the materials. Maybe someone was skimming on the concrete contract?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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#10
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says the hurricane-devastated city is bankrupt and is scrambling for loans
Better not count on any "Loans" I wouldn't lend the City a cent.
The way it usualy goes, you get promises, then the debt gets delayed untill either forgotten or a "Resolution" is passed by the city absolving the debt.
Better hope for Federal help. (Oh wait, you pissed in that pot already)
"Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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#11
Mebbe he couldn't afford to pay the bus drivers time-and-a-half to stick around and drive?
RC - three ways to fail a levee: Overtopping, which erodes the support on the dry side (the current favorite); bad materials or design (not likely - the Corps usually watches that stuff verrry closely); or leakage under the levee, which causes softening of the support and collapse, generally attributed to poor maintenance (which the Corps also pays attention to)or could also be poor design/construction. My money's on overtopping.
Not that the Corps is perfect. I worked on a project adjacent to a levee and told the Corps, "You were aware that somebody did some work over there and damaged your floodwall?"
Well, they were not, but it wasn't a very big hole....
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2005 13:40 Comments ||
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#12
You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome."
I had a debate on this with the moonbats at Washington Monthly. They were of the opinion that there was no way to get drivers for the buses on short notice. My point was simple: in the 25,000 or so people who could be evacuated, I bet you could find 500 who could, on short notice and in an emergency, drive a school bus for 100 miles.
Like me, for instance. I can drive a manual transmission, and a school bus has four wheels, a brake pedal, a gas pedal, and a steering column. You wouldn't want me driving your kids to school without some training, but in a 'bug out' situation, I'm betting I could drive the bus. If I crinkle a fender, so what? Given the speed traffic was moving the weekend before the hurricane, crinkle would be all I could do.
Cheez. You think creatively on the spot to solve problems. I don't think Mr. Nagin knows squat about that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2005 14:25 Comments ||
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#13
Like me, for instance. I can drive a manual transmission, and a school bus has four wheels, a brake pedal, a gas pedal, and a steering column. You wouldn't want me driving your kids to school without some training, but in a 'bug out' situation, I'm betting I could drive the bus. If I crinkle a fender, so what? Given the speed traffic was moving the weekend before the hurricane, crinkle would be all I could do.
Second the motion, I've driven big and little, Busses drive like cars, most these days also have automatic transmissions.
I note as well that most of the school busses i see these days have women drivers (No woman driver joke here)
Anyone who drives could handle one in an emergency, they're not hard to drive. Just allow for the length when turning, and keep a bit farther back from whatever's in front of you.
Busses have 60 seats or so, what are the odds that out of 60 folks one knows how to drive.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 14:46 Comments ||
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#14
For Chrissakes!
Get those people to the bus depot.
(You could get them to the Superdome, right?)
Get 60 people in one bus.
Then ask: Ok guys, who wants to drive?
#16
"...every available train was booked..."
What kind of a "leader" checks bookings when he ought to be commandeering the trains?
Nagin seems to be clueless. I'm guessing that the hacks who work for him are even worse. No planning, no coordination, no leadership, no thinking outside the box. No coordination with state or fed or even Red Cross. The man has an M.B.A. from Tulane University, yet he seems to be totally incompetent. Does anybody here have any insight into his record at Cox Communications?
#17
I wouldn't be so harsh... New York or Los Angeles are "blue", too.
New Orleans seems to be a special nutcase. Next thing I hear from Nagin will be: "Yes, but we didn't know where the keys were."
And of course nobody of all these law abiding folks would know how to start a car, let alone an old bus, without keys.
I think the biggest mistake was that nobody told FEMA: "This is New Orleans. They do things differently down there."
#18
Darrel, a mayor should know how to deal with emergencies. But if he can't, he should have a guy in place who can.
Especially in a town like New Orleans.
Trains were "booked". Not even a German bureaucrat would have dreamt this up.
And you know how a "booked" train in Germany looks like on Friday evening?
Amtrak could have evacuated thousands, not hundreds. The infirm get the seats, the rest will stand. Millions of Germans do that every weekend. And you couldn't do that for a few hours when your life depended on it?
#19
Mayor Nagin still has one functioning schoolbus, but it is in Houston after one enterprising 20yr old stole the keys and high-tailed out of town, picking up 70 people of the street on his way out.
And they made it to the Astrodome before the official Exodus.
Posted by: john ||
09/13/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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#20
For Chrissakes!
Get those people to the bus depot.
(You could get them to the Superdome, right?)
Get 60 people in one bus.
Then ask: Ok guys, who wants to drive?
Is this America or what?
It's not America. It's the New Orleans political machine. You just have to screw up and then talk about how horrible Bush and the Republicans are.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/13/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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#21
It's like some horribly twisted version of the moitey system some American Indian cities had.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/13/2005 15:42 Comments ||
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#22
I think the biggest mistake was that nobody told FEMA: "This is New Orleans. They do things differently down there."
I've suspeckted all along that TGA wasn't German. That's too close an insight.
#24
I'm in shock. On NPR this afternoon the reporter and the host were talking about how badly the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana jumped the shark (!!!!). Apparently there were masses of people nicely lined up for the evacuation busses that were supposed (according to the announced plan) to pick up evacuees in front of the football stadium before Katrina hit. Of course, the busses were never sent, and that's why so many people were stuck there. Also, the plan envisioned people sheltering in the stadium only for the few hours of the duration of the storm, then filing nicely back home to their flush toilets and pantries afterward. When even National Public Radio castigates the Party in power during this catastrophe, what are the odds the voters won't notice?
#25
Remind me sometime to tell you all the story of the time I got a lecture on whether or not I was a Lady and almost got sent to the New Orleans pokey by an undercover cop who was wearing a bowling shirt marked "Dick's Male Escort Service."
#27
I'm a New Orleanian, and evacuated a couple of days before Katrina struck, along with about 80% of the City, and this is the way I see it based on limited information.
(1) The storm would not have done nearly as much damage as it did if the floodwall that was supposed to contain the 17th Street Canal (a key drainage canal) had not failed massively. The floodwall was new contruction under the auspices of the Corps of Engineers. What went wrong?
(2) Blanco and Nagin are both coalition builders, which is a good skill to have when you're running for office but is absolutely counterproductive in a crisis. The evacuation crisis would not have occurred if either Nagin or Blanco had asserted decisive leadership. America is not short of vehicles, and the distance between disaster and safety was just a few miles. Having said that, though, the leadership issue is fixable. If there is a design defect in the key floodwalls protecting the City, then we've got a much more difficult problem.
(3) As severe as the damage is, we've got a lot of City left to work with: the Central Business District, the French Quarter, the suburban parishes to the north and west, and some residential areas within the City proper. We are also, if I may say, a damn sight more resilient than Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn seem to think we are. So don't scratch New Orleans off your maps just yet.
Posted by: Matt ||
09/13/2005 16:57 Comments ||
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#28
Seafarious - that means I need to run some facial matching programs on my Mardi-Gras photo collection... (heh)
#29
I was enjoying the concept of being lectured on the state of my Ladyhood a block away from Bourbon Street by a man wearing a "Dick's Male Escort Service" bowling shirt, yes indeedy I was.
You're being charitable, TGA. The difference between NO and other Big Blue Cities is merely the degree of penetration of the accepted corruption / nanny-state / entitlement / victim mentalities. For example, the comparison between the NO cleanup / reconstruction and the Boston Big Dig. Systemic Graft - same same. Merely the percentage of crooks / taxpayers and what've-you-done-for-me-lately / do-it-yourself people varies. In the Blue areas, there is machine politics, commonplace graft, professional govt crooks, career parasites, and it's all accepted as the norm by the majority. Reaction to news stories exposing it? Shrugs & cynicism. Sure, throw the dummy who got caught in jail - cuz he's so stupid he'll get others caught, too. Clean it up? Heh, you gotta be kidding. The racist charges being thrown about are a slice of the victim mentality that is both particularly a facet of Big Blue Cities and particularly offensive to rational people.
Bottom Line, in Nagin vernacular speech: Dey ain't gots no gumption, but dey gots rights. Beaucoup rights. Dey be growin on de trees in dat nanny-state. Life be sweet.
#32
.com, oddly enough, for the first time in my whitebread life I have Official Victim Status as a Katrina refugee. I walk in to a restaurant and get a 20% discount as soon as the waiter finds out where I'm from. While I really appreciate the thought and the help, I hate the status.
Posted by: Matt ||
09/13/2005 17:41 Comments ||
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#33
Being in the minority in a looney place like NO must be trying, indeed. I wish you and yours the best in getting your life back - wherever you decide to make a go of it. If there's anything you would have RBers do, other than donate to the AmRedCross and the SalvArmy, please let Fred know. I'm absolutely sure there are many of us who'd be willing to help. Please take care and keep us updated, if you can, on the other side of the equation - we're just voyeurs regards the trials you're facing.
The only sunbelt city to lose population over the last several decades.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/13/2005 18:12 Comments ||
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#35
Matt - An observer (read: back-seat driver looking over my shoulder) read what I posted a few minutes ago and we've just completed a discussion (read: I was orally bashed against the wall). I sounded callous - I'm sorry. I really do wish you the best and would be happy to help you, personally, if possible. I've been "mobile" for the last, 18 yrs - no permanent location and much of it contracting with no guarantees, including having to relocate to different countries on 2 weeks notice. I was informed by my better that my situation is voluntary - and has made me a "callous prick". Prolly right. My apologies. The offer of help was personal - the lousy verbiage was not. Sorry, bro.
#41
.com, I didn't even begin to take offense at your comments -- maybe I didn't read 'em carefully enough :-)
Em, trust me, my seething skills are professional grade.
Posted by: Matt ||
09/13/2005 21:22 Comments ||
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#42
Lol, Thx, Matt. I just won a bottle of Bailey's with that response, lol. It'll last me a year or two, but that's beside the point, heh. Offer stands - let us know if we can help.
A California radio station is pleading for advertisers to sponsor the liberal programming of the Air America shows it broadcasts, while noting the conservative Rush Limbaugh show is virtually sold out on its sister station. Feel free to substitute "virtually" for "completely" in the above sentence.
"For liberal programming to continue ... you need to support it," said an ad by KOMY station owner Michael Zwerling, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "You can't be coy in this business," said Zwerling. "You have to spell it out, especially in Santa Cruz where everybody thinks they deserve everything."
Zwerling brought Air America to the Central Coast region of California in July, and during initial negotiations, he says network executives refused to allow Al Franken to share a dial with syndicated radio host Michael Savage, known for statements such as "liberalism is a mental disorder." "As soon as I said Michael Savage, the door slammed shut," Zwerling said. As soon as you said "Al Franken", you mean.
And even though there's been some letters and calls of appreciation, not a single business has purchased air time specifically during Air America's slot since its debut. I had no idea Karl Rove was this good.
Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh, who is broadcast on sister station KSCO, gave some advice to Zwerling today on his nationally broadcast show. Limbaugh suggested perhaps the best way to support the liberal broadcast was to find a local Boys & Girls' club, and "tell them you need an operating loan" for some unspecified purpose, referring to the recent scandal involving Air America allegedly siphoning money from such a club in New York City. "I want to help this man because he took a great risk," Limbaugh said. "I don't want this guy to suffer out there."
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/13/2005 00:22 ||
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#1
"You have to spell it out, especially in Santa Cruz where everybody thinks they deserve everything."
Yes. Statements like that should have the locals banging down the doors to buy time...
#2
Given the programming politics is not appealling to even the middle of the road voter and the content is usually quite nasty, infantile, and devoid of any good natured humor why in the world would anyone seeking to sell goods or services to the public want to be associated with it? This is not rocket science or brain surgery yet the Air America crowd and their supporters don't have a clue as always. Would you have each of your customers, patients, clients, consumers suffer your minority political beliefs expressed in a nasty tone prior to asking them to do business with you? You wouldn't last too long in your business and Air America won't either.
#3
Given the programming politics is not appealling to even the middle of the road voter and the content is usually quite nasty, infantile, and devoid of any good natured humor why in the world would anyone seeking to sell goods or services to the public want to be associated with it? This is not rocket science or brain surgery yet the Air America crowd and their supporters don't have a clue as always. Would you have each of your customers, patients, clients, consumers suffer your minority political beliefs expressed in a nasty tone prior to asking them to do business with you? You wouldn't last too long in your business and Air America won't either.
#4
When you're not insulated by layers and layers of comgolomerate funding and the free and unrestrained marketplace comes into play, you can not sell your product of hate and loathing based upon emotion and ad hominem attacks unanchored on truth. So much for 'reality-based' politics of the left. That's what you get when you ban teaching capitalism in schools. Too bad NPR and PBS already are subsidised, otherwise I'm sure your shills in Congress would work to get you some all in the name of 'fairness' not to be confused with 'consent of the governed'.
#7
Interesting: Air America is doing badly in California. Where else do they expect to get decent ratings and revenues? I doubt Vermont's huuuuuge market will be enough to keep them afloat.
#9
Santa Cruz is where people protest because it's Monday (or it isn't Monday), and the locals applaud that they are making their voices heard, and speaking truth to power. My sister is very happy there -- I suppose I should be happy for her.
#12
Mojo, the folks in Oklahoma City who listen to KOMA would take serious exception to Air America. It is a 60's - 70's good-time rock & roll station.
Capitalism is a bitch for communists and socialists. The only way AA could survive is on NPR or, if they snark up their accents, on the BBC.
NEW DELHI â New Delhi's government has a rat catching department that hasn't caught a single rodent in more than a decade, a newspaper reported yesterday.
There are 97 rat catchers on the municipal payroll, all working for the Rat Surveillance Department, a decades-old agency that last saw a lot of action back in 1994, when a plague outbreak killed 56 people in areas of northwest India near the capital, The Hindustan Times reported. Each rat catcher earns about Rs3,500 a month for catching, but there are no records of any rodents being caught in 10 years.
Mayor Nagin wants these guys to help with disaster planning.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2005 00:11 ||
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You dirty rat!
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/13/2005 0:20 Comments ||
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#2
The division is working on its new novel, "Of Mice and Mukherjee".
#4
I don't know what the hell these guys have been doing then. I was in New Delhi 3 years ago and saw rats a foot long (body, tail was longer) in the bushes of my hotel twice. They probably came from the giant, burning trash dump/squatter farm just behind it.
That's a crock, implying there are no rats.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
09/13/2005 9:23 Comments ||
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#5
Parkinson is laughing his long-dead ass off...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/13/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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#11
Pound for pound I'd go with unreformed farm cats - maine coon variety. They are self-sufficient and self motivating little sadistic killing machines that do their thing not for food or attention but simply because, when not sleeping, eating or defecating, they love to kill all things smaller then themselves as much as possible. They'll surrender their work product (usually decapitated) up to you on a daily basis especially if you give them some regular high end grub. They don't give a flying F&*# about much beyond the basics, which for them includes killing rats and mice.
What Dr. McSwain described...was a slow descent into chaos. The more desperate the situation became, he said, the harder it was to reach anyone in authority... "Nobody was in charge," he said. "I guarantee you that. I'd call the governor's office, and either they didn't answer the telephone or I'd talk to lower functionaries, and they'd say: 'The governor's too busy to talk. We'll relay the message.'" Making matters worse, he said, someone from the state health department announced that Charity had already been emptied, when in fact 250 patients and 1,000 staff members were inside...He was finally able to appeal to HCA, the company that runs Tulane University Hospital, across the street. HCA had hired 20 medical evacuation helicopters, which were landing on the Tulane hospital's parking garage. "They said, "We're not going to leave you down there," Dr. McSwain said of company executives. "I have nothing but praise for them."
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has confirmed signing into law controversial constitutional changes he says will finally settle any dispute over the legality of seizing white-owned farms. Mr Mugabe, who is on a state visit to Cuba, says he has approved laws passed two weeks ago by Zimbabwe's Parliament that allow his Government to effectively nationalise formerly white-owned farms and impose travel bans on "traitors".
"The amendment ends any doubt about the acquisition of land from British settlers," he said. "That it is now final and no one can question it. Our constitution has put a seal to the liberation of our land and its acquisition by our nation." The changes also provide for the creation of a Senate as the second chamber of Parliament. Critics of Mr Mugabe say the new chamber would be packed with the veteran leader's allies. But Mr Mugabe describes it as a "consolidation of national power". He says elections for the Senate would be held before the end of the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/13/2005 00:00 ||
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Oh, well, as long as there is a law, then it's OK.
His regime is the platonic ideal of an African dictatorship - a handy scapegoat to blame all the troubles on (whites, Tutsi's), suspension of habeus corpus, the slow destruction of the wealth-creating section of the economy, nepotism as state policy, gagging of the press, state visits to the Arse of the World, the promise of free and fair elections (always the promise) and nice shiny medals - lots of medals. Someone, somewhere, please, take him out - .22 or JDAM, makes no difference to me (actually I'd prefer the JDAM - I understand you get a fine mist on detonation).
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/13/2005 1:38 Comments ||
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#3
Mugabe legalises seizure of white farms
Mugabe's black ownership = wish sandwiches
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/13/2005 1:50 Comments ||
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#4
Starvation in 2 years minimum, and guess who he'll expect to send free food by the freighterload.
Awww, that was too easy.US of course.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 2:29 Comments ||
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#5
So who's bicycle sprocket did he steal for that top medal?
Posted by: Al-Aska Paul ||
09/13/2005 2:32 Comments ||
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#6
"That it is now final and no one can question it."
Of course questioning a law would be against the law. Otherwise it wouldnt be much a law, now would it?
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
09/13/2005 2:43 Comments ||
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#7
Life expectancy is now 36 years for women and 37 years for men and still dropping. Under white rule it was over 60 years.
You're just a racist white oppressor for pointing stuff like that out. You probably think the ex-Rhodesians would be better off under white minority rule, don't you? Why are you so stupid as to not realize that this minor trouble is just a phase on the way to the political maturation of the country? It's obvious youre just a honky ofay mofo who wants to confuse the issue with "facts."
When the "radiant future" the sainted Mr. Hobsbawm envisions for the world arrives, we'll know how to deal with capitalist running dogs like you. Frantz and Stokely (and that old honky Uncle Joe) laid it out for us line by line a long time ago. /sarcasm off
Posted by: mac ||
09/13/2005 5:51 Comments ||
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#9
Dear Bob:
If you and Kaddafi are done taking turns showing off my sprocket, I'd appreciate its prompt return so I can do that France thing next year, OK?
#10
This be great news! Now I can be tellin my sons Plantin B. and Fertilizin B. that all this dust pit be theirs someday. Legally. Lessen of course I piss off Bob...
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
09/13/2005 9:07 Comments ||
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#11
phil_b, are those stats right? If so, that is appalling.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/13/2005 10:15 Comments ||
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#12
Phil_B's a fascist opressor, the only reason the life expenctancy dropped is due to white flight. When the 200,000 whites (who lived an average of 974 yrs.) left it created an artifical statistic.
#13
Phil's stats are accurate. Most of it can be attributed to the 25% HIV infection rate made worse by the Mugabe engineered chronic malnutrition. The 25% infection rate is not sustainable because without the latest and expensive AIDS cocktails, the survival time is short compared to that in the US. Rank Order - HIV/AIDS - deaths
Notice the US with 300 million people and about 1 million infected had 14,000 AIDS deaths in 2003 vs. 170,000 in Zimbabwe.
Posted by: ed ||
09/13/2005 11:22 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
09/13/2005 11:33 Comments ||
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#15
#5: So who's bicycle sprocket did he steal for that top medal?
Nah, that's an emergency Ninja Star, for public assassination attempts, just rip off and throw.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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#16
ed: you can add to that list of problems Bob's extremely successful "AIDS is a myth made up by the white man" program in the rural parts of the country. No, I am not kidding.
#17
#13: Phil's stats are accurate. Most of it can be attributed to the 25% HIV infection rate made worse by the Mugabe engineered chronic malnutrition.
Oh Shit, I remember reading that the African Natives believe "Western" medicine is not curing them, but is used as a means to infect them, Coupled with another statistic I read some years ago that No AIDS patient has lived over 8 years (May be different now) and I feel safe predicting a empty country up for grabs within 15 years (Give or take 5)
Just needs sterilization, and move in.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 11:52 Comments ||
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#18
#7: Life expectancy is now 36 years for women and 37 years for men
Well at least there's some hope, just how old is Mugabe?
Looks well past his thirties.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2005 12:53 Comments ||
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#19
Well if those stats are right, there will soon be more ex-Rhodesians than Zimbabweans. A close contest for a true Darwin award, with the Zimbos coming in a close first, the Rhodesians won, we came second. J-Dams now, and then explain.
At the time, it seemed like a minor, one-day story -- amid the tragedy of the hurricane catastrophe -- but is The New York Times, normally quick to run a correction or clarification, making it much more than that by stonewalling?
On Monday, Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post defended Geraldo Rivera in his campaign to gain an apology from the Times for accusing him of showboating during his Katrina coverage last week. The Chicago Tribune also covered the dispute today.
The Times's TV critic Alessandra Stanley wrote last week that the flamboyant Fox correspondent had "nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety."
Rivera has denied this from the start, claimed that a tape of the incident does not bear this out, threatened to sue, accused Stanley of being "Jayson Blair in a cocktail dress," and suggested that if a male reporter had made similar allegations he would settle the dispute with his fists.
Meanwhile, the Times has not issued a correction, and Stanley has said her description was accurate.
In his Monday column on the front page of the Style section, Kurtz writes that "a review of the videotape shows no nudging or other physical contact by Rivera. At a nursing home, Rivera and a staffer are shown lifting the woman's wheelchair down an interior flight of stairs. Then one Air Force man takes the wheelchair and a second one comes into the picture, looking as though he is going to help carry the elderly woman down the outside stairs. The second Air Force man leaves the picture and Rivera reappears, helping the first airman carry the wheelchair outside as the camera rolled." Sort of. It was never clear whether the AF man still inside the house was going to bring the lady out, or if Geraldo was there all along.
He then quotes New York Times Editor Bill Keller: "It was a semi-close call, in that the video does not literally show how Mr. Rivera insinuated himself between the wheelchair-bound storm victim and the Air Force rescuers who were waiting to carry her from the building. Whether Mr. Rivera gently edged the airman out of the way with an elbow (literally 'nudged'), or told him to step aside, or threw a body block, or just barged into an opening -- it's hard to tell, since it happened just off-camera. Frankly, given Mr. Rivera's behavior since Ms. Stanley's review appeared ... Ms. Stanley would have been justified in assuming brute force. ... Ms. Stanley's point was that Mr. Rivera was showboating." But Kurtz concludes: "Still, the tape shows no nudging, so the refusal to even run a clarification gives Rivera free rein to call the paper 'arrogant.'" Geraldo was at the top of a narrow stairway, holding the legs of the wheelchair while another guy backed the old lady down the stairs. Air Force soldier gets behind the guy at the halfway point on the stairs, then steps back while he and Geraldo get the lady down to the landing. Then we don't see Geraldo until he's helping get the lady through the door from behind her with another person helping him with the front end (I don't remember if that person was AF personnel or not). Geraldo was never shown shoving, nudging, nor otherwise impairing the efforts of uniformed personnel. The tape I saw had no audio, but I'm betting Geraldo can produce audio showing he never told AF personnel anything about "stepping aside", otherwise I doubt the salty veteran Geraldo would try to take on the Times.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
This should be a delicious slime-fest and I hope that Geraldo and the NYT's end up humiliated. Actually the reporter, Stanley, strikes me as one of their more fair-minded reporters when it comes to dealing with Bush and conservatives. This, despite the fact that she's Nancy Pelosi's daughter!!! But from what little I know of her, she strikes me as somewhat spoiled and ditzy. I always notice her by-line ever since I learned that she was Pelosi's daughter.
#2
Ah, Alessandra. I had a run in (purely professional, I assure you) with her once, gawd, 19 years ago. My personal, first hand experience is that she is a liar and a careerist of the first order. For her to call Geraldo a showboater is like the dingiest, most soot-covered pot calling the kettle black. People like her gravitate to the NYT like moths to flame, eager to be in the spotlight and willing to pay any cost to get there. Why does elite media suck? Because elitists are ruthless assholes willing to do anything to get that elite status. The worst of the worst become editors. Think Paul Krugman with a better poker face.
#3
I don't know who (if anyone)is telling the truth here, but when I originally heard Mr. Rivers had "rescued a survivor" I cracked up. He'll always be "Al Capone's bottle-boy" to me. A bigger ham there isn't.
#5
11a5s - unfortunately her type proliferates in many areas (had a fun day in Court yesterday with one who wears robes) and benefits from the silence and short memory of the general population ... I'm no fan of Geraldo frankly and don't know the truth of the matter, but by the same token media canabalism amidst the aftermath of Katrina is bizarre and disgusting. There are surely countless things people should know but won't hear or see because of the oxygen, airtime and print sucked up by media BS about the media.
#6
It really doesnt' matter if she's a good or bad reporter for the Times. She's a female and fills a quota for them..
I think reporting the news went out with the Times a long time even befor Jayson Blair.
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