Author: NewMexiKen

Best line of the day, so far

“Politician after politician — Republican and Democrat alike — has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the “I-Me” switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were — congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.”

Keith Olbermann

Sensitive soul that she is

Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, “This is working very well for them.”

The former First Lady’s remarks were aired this evening on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” program. …

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: “Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we’re going to move to Houston.”

Then she added: “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.”

Editor & Publisher

This pretty much ranks right up there with Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake.” (Allegedly said when she was told the peasants had no bread.)

The Sunken City

Good articles on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina from The New Yorker. Includes a 1987 John McPhee article “The Sunken City.” An excerpt:

The river goes through New Orleans like an elevated highway. Jackson Square, in the French Quarter, is on high ground with respect to the rest of New Orleans, but even from the benches of Jackson Square one looks up across the levee at the hulls of passing ships. Their keels are higher than the AstroTurf in the Superdome, and if somehow the ships could turn and move at river level into the city and into the stadium they would hover above the playing field like blimps.

He Held Their Lives in His Tiny Hands

In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Los Angeles Times

Jesse James

… was born on this date in 1847.

From the review at Amazon.com of T.J. Stiles’s Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War:

James is often grouped with famous frontier criminals like Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy, but he’s best understood as a Southerner who forged partisan alliances in postwar Missouri and promoted himself as a latter-day Robin Hood. Stiles describes James as “a foul-mouthed killer who hated as fiercely as anyone on the planet” and places his life in the context of “the struggle for–or rather, against–black freedom.” Stiles’s fundamental point about James is as startling as it is convincing: “In his political consciousness and close alliance with a propagandist and power broker, in his efforts to win media attention with his crimes … Jesse James was a forerunner of the modern terrorist.”

Wal-Mart 1 FEMA -3

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA–we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, “Come get the fuel right away.” When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. “FEMA says don’t give you the fuel.” Yesterday–yesterday–FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, “No one is getting near these lines.” Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America–American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis.

— Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard on Meet the Press yesterday. From transcript.

Race and America

Here’s the bottom line: Race is central to the story of the United States. I didn’t inject that into the narrative. Race is an issue today in NOLA and it was an issue two weeks ago and it has been an issue for roughly four centuries. We had a war over it. We had a century of Jim Crow and then a Civil Rights movement. Someone tell me when race ceased to matter. Just because your favorite athlete is Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods doesn’t mean you have an exemption from ever thinking about race again. The “colorblind” society is perhaps a noble goal, but it doesn’t exist yet.

Joel Achenbach

Killed by Contempt

Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I’m not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.

Here’s one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday – without patients.

Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a “strange paralysis” set in among Bush administration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousands died.

The above begins today’s column by Paul Krugman, who conludes:

That contempt, as I’ve said, reflects a general hostility to the role of government as a force for good. And Americans living along the Gulf Coast have now reaped the consequences of that hostility.

The administration has always tried to treat 9/11 purely as a lesson about good versus evil. But disasters must be coped with, even if they aren’t caused by evildoers. Now we have another deadly lesson in why we need an effective government, and why dedicated public servants deserve our respect. Will we listen?

The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener is a gripping, harrowing film adapted from John le Carré’s novel of corporate greed and political corruption set in Kenya. Ralph Fiennes is superb as the too timid British diplomat and Rachel Weisz brilliant as his radical wife Tessa.

An emotionally demanding film.

*****
A personal note: This film is edited with so much camera movement, swirling focus and quick cuts that NewMexiKen actually became nauseated watching it. I respect the filmmakers’ art and understand how this sort of cinematography can add to the impact of the film — in this case to the confusion and chaos surrounding the principals — but …

Don’t sit too close.

Photo op

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast — black and white, rich and poor, young and old — deserve far better from their national government.

Excerpt from Press Release — Senator Mary Landrieu

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?

Powerful, powerful tribute to her native city from Anne Rice.

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us “Sin City,” and turned your backs.

Sums it up

Thank you for calling 911, this is George, hold please.
Thank you for calling 911, this is George, hold please.
Thank you for calling 911, this is George, hold please.
Thank you for calling 911, this is George, hold please.
Thank you for calling 911, this is George, hold please.
Thank you for calling 911, this is George, hold please.
Whoa! Lunch time!

From TBogg, who has lots of righteous indignation.

In good hands

Given the Administration’s, and particularly Homeland Security’s response to Katrina, NewMexiKen just can’t help but feeling that we are at the terrorists’ mercy. Other than making sure we don’t have anything dangerous in our shoes at airports, does anyone seriously think they’re on top of anything?

Some reporters at least start to grow cojones

ANDERSON COOPER: Excuse me, Senator [Mary Landrieu], I’m sorry for interrupting. I haven’t heard that, because, for the last four days, I’ve been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.

And when they hear politicians slap — you know, thanking one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there’s not enough facilities to take her up.

Do you get the anger that is out here?

When [Secretary Chertoff] cautioned [NPR’s Robert] Siegel about the danger of relying on “anecdotal” “rumors” of people in dire straits, Siegel said, no—these are facts presented by reporters who have covered war zones. There are 2,000 people at the convention center in need, he said. Having finally broken through the steel plate that is Chertoff’s skull, the secretary confessed he hadn’t heard those reports—reports that the television networks were documenting, live, with their cameras. Chertoff promised he’d look into the matter.

CNN ANCHOR SOLEDAD O’BRIEN [to FEMA Director Brown]: How is it possible that we’re getting better intel than you’re getting? …

FEMA has been on the ground for four days, going into the fifth day. Why no massive airdrop of food and water? In Banda Aceh, in Indonesia, they got food dropped two days after the tsunami struck. …

It’s five days that FEMA has been on the ground. The head of police says it’s been five days that FEMA has been there. The mayor, the former mayor, putting out SOS’s on Tuesday morning, crying on national television, saying please send in some troops. So the idea that, yes, I understand that you’re feeding people and trying to get in there now, but it’s Friday. It’s Friday. …

Above from Slate, “The Rebellion of the Talking Heads – Newscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling.” By Jack Shafer

Louisiana 1927 Lyrics

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

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne

CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They’re tyrin’ to wash us away
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
They’re tryin’ to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, “Little fat man isn’t it a shame
What the river has done
To this poor crackers land.”

CHORUS

Randy Newman – Louisiana 1927 Lyrics