National

RNC contributor CH2M Hill involved in major bribery scandal

Filed under: National

CH2M Hill Companies, a construction and engineering firm at the center of a major bribery case in Cleveland, is among the contributors to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

The company contributed $50,000 to the RNC, according to the Minnesota Independent, which asked companies to voluntarily disclose how much they donated.

CH2M was a major player in a scandal that brought down the East Cleveland mayor as well as the close friend of former Cleveland mayor Mike White. Here's a quick summary courtesy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Continue reading "RNC contributor CH2M Hill involved in major bribery scandal"

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at June 17, 2008 4:00 AM | Comments (1)

 

America's leading pro-Israel lobby made a flag-pin wearer out of Obama...

Filed under: Elections , Elections , Elections , Elections , Elections , Elections

Photo courtesy AIPAC

The day after Barack Obama declared victory in St. Paul, he was at a podium addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which describes itself as "America's pro-Israel lobby."

And it wasn't just Obama. McCain did it. Hillary Clinton did it too. AIPAC is a notoriously influential lobby, with organizing skills that are the stuff of legend. Following the Obama address, The Daily Show satirized AIPAC's role in politics.



Jon Stewart began the piece by calling out: "Hey Barack Obama, you just won the democratic nomination, what are you going to do now?" Cut to Obama on the AIPAC stage where the man notorious for his aversion to flag lapel pins is wearing, well, as Stewart describes it: "the Siamese U.S.-Israeli flag double lapel pin--wow!"

Continue reading "America's leading pro-Israel lobby made a flag-pin wearer out of Obama..."

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at June 10, 2008 5:07 PM | Comments (8)

 

Murder, MySpace, Babysitters, Betrayal: The Best National True Crime Stories of 2007

Filed under: National

They are the modern versions of monster stories.

True Crime writers seek out such tales every day, finding them in two sentence-long police blotter blurbs, law enforcement sources lamenting the one that got away, or victims looking for justice. They pile on hours of research and interviews, building a case while crafting a narrative. But unlike campfire tales, these monster stories cannot be embellished. The tale must be told straight. And as you will read in this collection, no amount of creativity can rival the treachery and depravity of the non-fiction world.

This year's tales include two internet identity hoaxes ending in mental torture or tragedy. One traces the final steps of a civil rights pioneer who vanished almost 70 years ago. Another outlines a daughter's slavish devotion to her criminal mother. A G-man turned criminal. A serial killer brought to justice. A crack-maker turned cake baker. A monster who gets his due.

These are the stories of the darker side of American life, told in Village Voice Media's newspapers across the country.

—Compiled by VVM Staff

Continue reading "Murder, MySpace, Babysitters, Betrayal: The Best National True Crime Stories of 2007"

Posted by at January 8, 2008 2:10 PM | Comments (0)

 

Convention Wisdom

Filed under: National

Party People in the Xcel Center?

If you think a magestic backdrop and a thriving bar scene will factor into the selection of the site for the '08 Democratic and Republican national conventions, the Center for Responsive Politics has some numbers for you. The D.C.-based money-in-politics watchdog group has just released a comparison of the five metro areas vying to host the confabs--to be clear, Minneapolis/St. Paul being one of the areas, not two. Cheeky watchdogs, they titled the report "'08 Presidential Conventions are Big Bid-Ness."

Continue reading "Convention Wisdom"

Posted by Beth Hawkins at August 7, 2006 2:34 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans dodges a bullet

Filed under: National

Estimated cost of hosting Democratic Convention in NOLA: $70 million

Estimated benefits of the last DNC convention in Boston: $50-$100 million

And those were described in the City Pages article linked above as "grossly inflated." More at Demconwatch.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 14, 2006 3:14 PM | Comments (1)

 

A phone company with backbone and a Congressman without one

Filed under: National

Federal law dating back to 1934 requires that telephone companies protect the confidentiality of their customers' communication. Yet only Qwest among the major phone companies defied the Bush Administration when the NSA asked it to turn over the phone records of their clientele. Actually, according to USA Today, Qwest's lawyers didn't refuse the request; they simply asked that the NSA first clear it through the courts specifically charged with enforcing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as required under federal law. The USA Today story quoted numerous sources as saying that the NSA didn't pursue the matter with Qwest because they thought the FISA court would not agree with the surveillance plan. The 79 percent of the Twin Cities market that uses Qwest should feel better that it takes our privacy--and existing laws--seriously.

Continue reading "A phone company with backbone and a Congressman without one"

Posted by Britt Robson at May 12, 2006 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

 

Russ Feingold to introduce presidential censure

Filed under: National

Wisconsin senator and probable 2008 presidential candidate Russ Feingold is taking the floor of the U.S. Senate today to introduce a resolution to censure President George W. Bush. Feingold, a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees, has stated Bush's domestic surveillance program is illegal and that censure would send a "clear signal" that his actions were "wrong." Click here to download the resolution.

Posted by Corey Anderson at March 13, 2006 3:16 PM | Comments (0)

 

Ports, UAE and the local connection

Filed under: National

Guess which former Minnesota congressman is de-scandalizing the scandal?

Talking Points Memo has a scoop about the Gopher state's connection to the United Arab Emirates/Dubai Ports World issue. Which state politico would have the kind of reach into the higher echelons of Washington right-wing think tanks and policy firms required for such prestige?

That's right, it's Vin Weber! Weber, a six-time congressman from Minnesota who's been a busy little beaver since he left office, is working for Clark and Weinstock--a DC-based "consulting firm" that apparently has mastered the art of spin. Weber's firm will essentially deal with damage control.

Continue reading "Ports, UAE and the local connection"

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at February 27, 2006 1:31 PM | Comments (4)

 

Bush approval ratings remain low

Filed under: National

A substantial majority of Minnesotans continue to disapprove of the job being done by President Bush, according to the latest poll numbers released by SurveyUSA today. The sampling of 600 adults, with a +/- error of four percentage points, found that 56 percent of residents surveyed disapproved of the President's work, while just 39 percent approved. The SurveyUSA tracking numbers have remained steady in recent months, but show a substantial erosion of support for Bush during the last year. Last May, the President's job approval rating among Minnesotans was a comparatively healthy 47 percent, while 49 percent disapproved of his work.

Continue reading "Bush approval ratings remain low"

Posted by Paul Demko at January 17, 2006 5:44 PM | Comments (0)

 

Dubya speaks, Norm barks

Filed under: National

MN junior Senator responds to Prez's war ... uh, plan

Norm Coleman staked his claim on President Bush's latest address to the nation last night, wasting no time in firing off a press release of his own.

"This evening President Bush did what he needed to do," Coleman "said" in a statement that hit e-mail inboxes just 30 minutes after the Prez wrapped his speech. "He offered the American people a candid progress report at a turning point on the path to democracy in the Middle East."

Coleman went on to prove just how much of the president's bluster he's willing to swallow. (Click through to read the whole statement.)

Continue reading "Dubya speaks, Norm barks"

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at December 19, 2005 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

Bush's poll tumble: the fine print

Filed under: National

The Harris Poll released on November 17 contains the lowest approval rating for George W. Bush yet logged by any major survey firm: 34 percent, compared to 65 percent disapproval. That's down 16 points from Bush's 50 percent approval a year ago, around the time he was re-elected. And it's 14 points below his Harris Poll high-water mark for 2005: 48 percent back in February.

As the media have noted repeatedly, the Republicans in Congress aren't faring much better in the court of opinion. Their 2005 Harris rankings, approval number first:

November 27% 69%
August 32% 64%
June 37% 58%
April 36% 61%

But there is a kicker that nearly everyone seems to have overlooked. The Democrats in Congress remain even more unpopular than their Republican counterparts. Their Harris ratings from the same periods:

November 25% 70%
August 31% 65%
June 33% 61%
April 34% 64%

It appears the grand Democratic strategy of standing back and letting the Republicans sink themselves is working roughly as well as it did in the 2004 campaign.

Read the WSJ's free-database story on the 11/17 Harris Poll.

Posted by Steve Perry at November 23, 2005 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

 

Lino Lakes Correctional Facility: the other body of Christ

Filed under: National

A federal trial taking place in Iowa this week could determine the future of faith-based initiatives, or at the very least, the future of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Bible-based prison reform program offered at prisons in Iowa, Texas, Kansas, and Minnesota. The IFI program has been offered at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility, just north of the Twin Cities, since July 2002.

The lawsuit filed against Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility by the D.C.-based organization Americans United for the Separation of Church and State contends that IFI is unconstitutional because it uses state and local tax dollars to promote Christianity. The Iowa Legislature has appropriated $310,000 from the Healthy Iowans Tobacco Trust for a value-based program at Newton. In Minnesota, 22 percent of IFI's funding comes from the state.

The lawyer for Americans United told the AP that the program has turned an entire unit of a state prison into an evangelical church. The lawsuit also claims that prisoners who sign up for the program get preferential treatment such as separate living quarters, special visits from family members, and access to computers. And according to prisoners who have testified, in order to be adopted into the program they must sign an agreement that they will subscribe to the teachings of InnerChange, which only promotes Christianity. In other words, Jews, Muslims, and anyone else who isn't Christian must convert in order to be a part of the reform program. The trial is expected to continue through next week.

Posted by at October 28, 2005 11:05 AM | Comments (2)

 

Blackberry? Black Humor

Filed under: National

From today's Los Angeles Times:

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!! I just ate an MRE [military rations] and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants."

--Text message sent two days after Hurricane Katrina by Marty Bahamonde when he learned that an aide to his boss, Michael Brown, was fretting over dinner reservations.

There's an article associated with this, but really the quote says all you need to know.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 21, 2005 2:00 PM | Comments (0)

 

Winging It

Filed under: National

DC-9 engine shoots flames; takeoff aborted

The Associated Press reports that a Northwest flight from Minneapolis to Minot returned to the gate this morning after an aborted takeoff. "It was basically just an engine failure," airport spokesman Pat Hogan explained, in what might turn out to be the understatement of the week. This is the second flight in a week that appears to have been forced back to the gate by mechanical troubles.

Why now, six weeks after the start of the mechanics' strike? It's only a guess, but here goes: Airplanes are so safe because they're engineered with all kinds of redundancies and are maintained according to carefully crafted schedules. Poor maintenance doesn't necessarily have an immediate effect; chances are you can defer work, and then defer it again. Odds are the plane will fly. Probably.

Continue reading "Winging It"

Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 3, 2005 2:21 PM | Comments (0)

 

Katrina cronyism

Filed under: National

The Center for Public Integrity has set up a new web site to track Katrina-related contracts awarded by the federal government. "Profiting From Katrina" keeps tabs on the cronyism and waste already coming to light. Among the dubious contracts awarded so far: $236 million to Carnival Cruise Lines for refugee housing and $568 million to Ashbritt, a company with ties to Mississippi Governor (and former Republican National Committee chairman) Haley Barbour, for trash removal.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 28, 2005 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

 

Why the Dems sat out the DC anti-war rally

Filed under: National

The investigative reporter Wayne Madsen posted this note over the weekend:

"Anti-war protest in Washington, DC today. Very few Democratic members of Congress to appear. Reason: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to Democratic insiders on Capitol Hill, put out the word that any member of Congress who appeared at the protest, where some speakers were to represent pro-Palestinian views, would face the political wrath of AIPAC. According to Democratic sources on the Hill, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts was the chief conveyor of the AIPAC warning to his colleagues. At the time of this report, three members of Congress were to address the anti-war protestors: Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), John Conyers (D-MI), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). The word is that AIPAC will direct its massive campaign support to Woolsey's neo-con and pro-Iraq war primary challenger, California State Assemblyman Joe Nation, who has strong connections to the Rand Corporation, one of the Pentagon's chief war-making think tanks. Woolsey represents California's Marin and Sonoma counties. September 26 Update: In the end, the antiwar rally apparently only drew only one member of Congress as speaker: Georgia Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney.

Visit the Madsen Report

(Via Michael Donnelly, Counterpunch)

Posted by Steve Perry at September 27, 2005 5:00 PM | Comments (1)

 

Houston freeways: Cadillac Ranch, the SUV edition

Filed under: National

Hurricane Rita's jog to the north last Friday was lucky not just for those who stayed in Galveston and Houston but likewise for those who tried to flee, only to find themselves stuck on Texas interstates. From Wednesday onward, gas stations in the Houston area and all along the main routes north and west turned up empty, temporarily stranding thousands and gumming up traffic for miles. After Rita passed on Saturday, Texas officials from Houston Mayor Bill White on up the line vowed to find out what happened.

One root of the problem was evident in the aerial shots of clogged freeways: They were choked with trucks and SUVs that have massive gas tanks and get shitty mileage. The math is not so difficult. The average passenger car's gas tank holds from 12-18 gallons. Trucks and SUVs start in the 22-gallon range (Ford Explorer) and run all the way up to 31 (Chevy Suburban) or even 35 gallons (Dodge Ram ST). And many of them get 10-13 MPG in stop-and-go traffic, which means they go about as far as a lot of cars with gas tanks half the size. No wonder the storage tanks at filling stations were quickly tapped out.

Texas ranks number two in the country in total SUV registrations, trailing only California. Yet while SUVs account for only about 7.5 percent of Texas registrations, that figure does not count pick-up trucks, and does not begin to do justice to the parade of gas guzzlers that took to the freeways leaving Houston last week. Sunday's New York Times Week in Review section carried a half-page photo of one random stretch of suburban interstate; SUVs, trucks, and vans outnumber passenger cars by a roughly 80-50 margin.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 26, 2005 8:31 AM | Comments (2)

 

Fatalities mount prior to Rita reaching land

Filed under: National

A passenger bus carrying hurricane evacuees from a Bellaire nursing home exploded into flames near Dallas killing at least 24 senior residents of Brighton Gardens and injuring several others. A mechanical problem caused the blaze and a passenger's oxygen tank caught fire. The medical examiners of Fort Bend, Harris, and Montgomery counties have all reported deaths related to the evacuation taking place prior to Hurricane Rita reaching landfall in Texas. Extreme heat and no water during the slow-moving trek out of Houston were contributing factors. Earlier this morning, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that between 2.5 million to 2.7 million people had evacuated Houston in 24 hours, with 15 airlifts taking place yesterday, and nine more scheduled today. KHOU in Houston has a blog set up to track events as they happen.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 23, 2005 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

As Rita approaches, water pours over New Orleans levees again

Filed under: National

According to WWL-TV in New Orleans, a flash flood warning has been put into effect for parts of Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, as well as areas of the Ninth Ward. Rain from Hurricane Rita has begun pouring over the patched levees in the form of a waterfall at least 30 feet wide. On the street running parallel to the Industrial Canal levee, the water is waist-deep and rising at a rate of three inches per minute. Forecasters have called for between 3 and 5 inches of rain in New Orleans as Rita passes Friday and Saturday, dangerously close to the 6 inches of rain that Corps officials say the patched levees can withstand. Read more at WWL-TV.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 23, 2005 10:32 AM | Comments (0)

 

The long-term plight of the evacuees

Filed under: National

MN resettlement groups picking up slack for Feds

In a way, this was the week that never was for Minnesota and Katrina survivors. Earlier there were initial reports that many evacuees balked at the idea of coming this far north, so far from home. That seemed to ring true when the estimated 1,000 to 3,000 displaced set to arrive at Camp Ripley never came.

But it seems likely that many evacuees will end up here anyway, whether they think they want to or not.

Continue reading "The long-term plight of the evacuees"

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 16, 2005 10:40 AM | Comments (1)

 

New Orleans: a long history of suppressing disaster talk

Filed under: National

When they got round to laying blame for the dismal performance of governments at every level last week in New Orleans, all the reporters invoked some reference to the traditionally "corrupt and inefficient" governments of the city and of Louisiana. True enough, but New Orleans itself has always manifested a more specific and finance-driven schizophrenia regarding the question of looming storm or flood disaster. On one hand, city fathers always wanted more and better reinforcements to the levee system safeguarding their lives and property from Lake Pontchartrain on the north and the Mississippi River on the south. At the same time, any public discussion about evacuations or flood contingencies was avoided through most of the city's history, and any alarming news withheld from New Orleans papers, to forestall panic--not among the citizenry, but among investors in the city's financial and industrial ventures.

As it happened, the book I was reading the week before Katrina hit was John M. Barry's Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. It's a fine and gripping history of the largest disaster to strike that part of the country pre-Katrina, and far and away the best historical account one could possibly read for purposes of understanding the circumstances that now face the Gulf Coast. Here's a passage in which Barry describes the deliberation of New Orleans leaders, and of the city's newspapers, as the Mississippi River rose to their south:

Continue reading "New Orleans: a long history of suppressing disaster talk"

Posted by Steve Perry at September 12, 2005 5:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

R. David Paulison to replace Brown at FEMA

Filed under: National

Three administration sources have told the Associated Press that R. David Paulison, a top FEMA official with three decades of firefighting experience, has been tapped as the new head of FEMA. This follows the resignation of Michael "heckuva job" Brown earlier today. Information on Paulison can be found here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 12, 2005 5:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Noblesse Oblige

Filed under: National

NOLA elites' rebuilding plan is underclass-free

It's a truism, of course, that one can never say the right thing at a funeral. But you'd think that someone might have advised New Orleans' top-drawer families not to be quite so chipper--or honest--when explaining to reporters their desire to make sure many of those poor citizens who did not drown or die in the Superdome never come home. We can only assume that the fact that the reporter in question works for that bastion of capitalism, the Wall Street Journal, loosened lips.

A few blocks from Mr. O'Dwyer, in an exclusive gated community known as Audubon Place, is the home of James Reiss, descendent of an old-line Uptown family. He fled Hurricane Katrina just before the storm and returned soon afterward by private helicopter. Mr. Reiss became wealthy as a supplier of electronic systems to shipbuilders, and he serves in Mayor Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority. When New Orleans descended into a spiral of looting and anarchy, Mr. Reiss helicoptered in an Israeli security company to guard his Audubon Place house and those of his neighbors.

He says he has been in contact with about 40 other New Orleans business leaders since the storm. Tomorrow, he says, he and some of those leaders plan to be in Dallas, meeting with Mr. Nagin to begin mapping out a future for the city.

The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.

The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

The Wall Street Journal's website is subscription only, but the Times of London today carries a synthesis of the piece--complete with a little indepcipherable nostalgia for New Orleans' "lawlessness."

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 9, 2005 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

 

Bush in New Orleans: If I give up the last two days of my vacation, the hurricanes win

Filed under: National

Steve Monaco at Couch Pundit sent along this pic and a note: "Of course it's Photoshopped-- these assholes could never catch a fish that big."

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 9, 2005 8:29 AM | Comments (1)

 

Arrival of evacuees confirmed

Filed under: National

MN Nat'l Guard, Public Safety revise date and numbers

According to a press relase that came from the state's Department of Public Safety earlier today, FEMA has confirmed that evacuees will be arriving in Minnesota.

"FEMA has notified the Minnesota State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) that Minnesota is scheduled to receive hurricane survivors on Tuesday, September 13," according to the release. "The state can expect a maximum of 500 survivors to arrive then, but FEMA emphasizes that the number of evacuees and arrival date is subject to change."

In fact, while this soldifies news of the arrivals a bit, Guard spokeswoman Lt. Shannon Purvis warns that the troops at Camp Ripley are still awaiting larger numbers, "maybe up to 1,000," and concedes that this might just be an initial phase. Then again, it might not.

To read the full press release, click below.

Continue reading "Arrival of evacuees confirmed"

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 8, 2005 5:39 PM | Comments (0)

 

How many body bags are on order?

Filed under: National

25,000: figure cited in AP dispatch datelined New Orleans

40,000: figure cited in Shelbyville (TN) Times-Gazette, quoting a local mortician deployed to emergency morgue in Gulfport, Mississippi

Posted by Steve Perry at September 8, 2005 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

 

Survival of the richest

Filed under: National

Who needs a disaster plan when you've got a free-market economy!?

The Center for the American Experiment, the conservative Minnesota think tank that spawned Strib columnist Katherine Kersten and Powerline's Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker, among others, has an archived piece on global warming that might explain the Bush administration's strategy for dealing (or not dealing) with natural disasters.

Of course the science of global warming is an unfounded hobgoblin, the Center claims, no matter that the 900-plus scientists who have studied the effects of carbon emissions have reached the same conclusion that the earth is being slowly suffocated. But more important than the future of the earth, according to the Center, is a free-market economy and deregulation of the energy industry. The best strategy to combat global warming, if it indeed exists, and resulting natural disasters is to devise a resiliency strategy. That strategy, the Center says, is simply a prosperous economy. In other words, the upper class gets golden life preservers and first-class tickets to the lifeboat departing from America's sinking ship:

Only a prosperous economy has resources available to protect against probable risks and to undertake remedial activity when events or changes do occur. In a newly released book, The Costs of Kyoto, Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute describes an appropriate analogy for the resiliency strategy.

"When a hurricane occurs in Florida, people are alerted early and move out of the path of the storm. [The widespread availability of private automobiles gives people the mobility to do so.] The wealth of our society makes it possible for people to incur the expenses of temporary relocation, and it funds rapid clean-up, restoration, and recovery. The storms in Bangladesh are not dissimilar. Yet Bangladesh lacks the wealth, the communication technology infrastructure, and the mobility needed to respond to such risks."

Continue reading "Survival of the richest"

Posted by at September 8, 2005 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

 

A long way from New Orleans

Filed under: National

But will Katrina victims come to Minnesota?

The Strib reports online this evening that state officials are beginning to wonder if "evacuees" will ever make it to Camp Ripley in central Minnesota. Local Guard officials claim that the unfortunately named "Operation Northern Comfort" is ready, with some 3,600 beds good to go in the barracks.

Kevin Smith, spokesman for the state's Department of Public Safety, notes that many of the victims are saying they don't want to go as far away from home as Minnesota.

And Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson (DFL-Willmar), a Guard chaplain himself, offers this slightly distasteful quote: "Everything is in place for the party to begin, but we don't have anyone to dance with right now. It's just wait and see."

Truth is, nobody knows for sure what's going on.

Continue reading "A long way from New Orleans"

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 7, 2005 7:24 PM | Comments (0)

 

Mike Brown's resume

Filed under: National

It's at FindLaw. (Link via Jeff St. Clair at Counterpunch.)

Posted by Steve Perry at September 7, 2005 5:08 PM | Comments (0)

 

FEMA: no pictures of the dead

Filed under: National

The Bush administration may have had no plan for dealing with natural disasters, but its efforts at using the media to contain criticism are unstinting as ever. This short dispatch from Reuters late yesterday:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday that it did not want news photographers to take pictures of the dead as they were recovered in New Orleans.

FEMA rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats.

An agency spokeswoman said that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."

The dead are of course a vital part of this story. Extensive photographic records need to be made at every stage. The Bush administration (correctly) sees the looming threat of another Abu Ghraib dust-up when those images hit the wire, and means to head it off at the start.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 7, 2005 9:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota prepares for up to 3,000 Katrina refugees and 5,000 Hmong refugees

Filed under: National

Camp Ripley near Brainerd is preparing to receive 3,000 Hurricane Katrina refugees within the next week. The refugees with be housed in 20 dormitories with 184 beds each. "The goal of Camp Ripley is basically temporary housing," Department of Public Safety spokesman Kevin Smith says. "We would like to move people into their own places or other places as quickly as possible." The influx coincides with the absorption of 5,000 Hmong refugees from Laos which is taking place with the help of a $23 million federal grant. In related news, buses from the Palmer Bus Company in south-central Minnesota passed through Willmar, Olivia, and Stewart recently, acquiring supplies for their trip to New Orleans. They will return with 82 evacuees who will be temporarily housed in the Olivia Armory once they've been processed through Camp Ripley. Local church congregations will take turns providing meals for the evacuees.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 5, 2005 4:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rasmussen poll gives federal government low marks in Katrina response

Filed under: National

Forty-five percent of Americans give the federal government a failing grade in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Just 28 percent say the government has done a good or excellent job and another 25 percent call it a fair job. Check out the rest of the numbers here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 5, 2005 2:18 PM | Comments (0)

 

They Say: Sheri Glover of Military Families Speak Out

Filed under: National

Houston native Sheri Glover was one of the 50 or so pro-peace activists who traveled from the Veterans for Peace Convention near Dallas to Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch on August 6. After spending most of her time in a ditch on the side of the rode in hopes of seeking a meeting with Bush that never came, Glover, who has a 20-year-old daughter in the Individual Ready Reserves and a son-in-law stationed in Talafar, Iraq, has since embarked on a nationwide tour with other military families and Iraq war vets speaking out against the war. Glover and others will be taking part in a rally at the state capitol tomorrow from 12:00 till 2:00.

Continue reading "They Say: Sheri Glover of Military Families Speak Out"

Posted by at September 2, 2005 4:42 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans: day 5

Filed under: National

"They don't have a clue what's going on down there," Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night. "They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn--excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed."

--AP, Allen G. Breed

7:03 A.M. - [Jefferson Parish emergency management director Walter] Maestri: We had a plan and we followed it (on storm coverage). Mayor Nagin and those in Jefferson believed that within 48 hours food, water and security would be here. It didn't happen.

--WWL-TV Katrina blog, Tom Planchet

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

--Interdictor blog, by a trapped New Orleans resident

Angry crowds chanted cries for help, and some among them rushed chaotically at helicopters bringing in food. . . "We're just a bunch of rats," said Earle Young, 31, a cook who stood waiting in a throng of perhaps 10,000 outside the Superdome, waiting in the blazing sun for buses to take them away from the city. "That's how they've been treating us.". . .

Col. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, concurred and he was particularly pungent in his criticism. Asserting that the whole recovery operation had been "carried on the backs of the little guys for four goddamn days," he said that "the rest of the goddamn nation can't get us any resources for security."

--New York Times, Treaster/Sontag

So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

--Washington Monthly blog, Kevin Drum

A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers....

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.

--LA Times, Scott Gold, on conditions inside the Superdome

There are four levels of hell inside the refugee city of the Superdome, home to about 15,000 people since Sunday. On the artificial-turf field and in the lower-level seats where Montrel sat sweltering with her family, a form of civilization had taken hold -- smelly, messy, dark and dank, but with a structure....

The bathrooms, clogged and overflowing since Monday, announced the second level of hell, the walkway ringing the entrance level. In the men's, the urinal troughs were overflowing. In the women's, the bowls were to the brim. A slime of excrement and urine made the walkway slick....

Within the skyboxes, on the third level of hell, life was dark 24 hours a day, a place for abandonment and coupling. Also up there was "a sort of speakeasy," said Michael Childs, who had some beer in an empty Dannon water bottle....

On the fourth level, the darkest and highest of all, the lurkers lived, scary in the shadows. The fourth level, people explained, was for the gangsters and the druggies. The rumors sprang from there: Two girls had been raped; one girl had been raped and one killed. Someone was abducting newborns. A man had jumped from there and died. A murder had occurred.

--Washington Post, Ann Gerhart, on conditions inside the Superdome

This is the situation. Please Help!!!!

My dad a surgeon and chief medical officer for the hospital. We just got called at 1:30 am this morning that things are deteriorating there.

THEY NEED HELP!!

600 People in hospital

13 patients on gurneys

Staff is dehydrating

FEMA is DIVERTING support being sent in by UHS (owners of hospital) away from the hospital

Temperature 110 degrees with humidity

NO fuel left to operate the hospital tower

NO communication with National Guard to coordinate evacuation of patients

Having to feed 500+ non-patient refugees--they are very close to rioting for the balance of food water and supplies

NO power, NO communication

Everything is manual--no xray--running out of supplies

Patients are on the 2nd floor and 3rd floor--having to carry patients up the stairs and the helicopters don't come back

Without power, the ventilator dependant patients are being manually bagged in 1 hour shifts by staff

Refusing to take gurney patients

FEMA is commandeering all supplies and all private efforts to get supplies including fuel, food, water

Governor is misrepresenting what is going on

Snakes in hospital

Rashes on staff from water

Losing nurses as a result of dehydration

Need FEMA to land on roof and prove what they are saying is correct

No security--uprising for food, water and supplies

Governor did not allow for the evacuation of the hospitals and now won't help

--NOLA.com blog, Ike Barr

The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander-in-Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned.

That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding.

I'm sure the people of New Orleans would have liked to show their appreciation for the official Presidential photo-strafing, but their surface-to-air missiles were wet.

--Greg Palast

Posted by Steve Perry at September 2, 2005 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

Is the Bring Them Home Now tour bus running out of gas?

Filed under: National

The Bring Them Home Now Tour, launched August 31st in Crawford, Texas, stops in Minneapolis on Saturday, though you wouldn't know it from the pro-peace tour's website. Either by error, lack of organization, or both, no information about the Twin Cities stop is listed. However, the tour's publicist confirms that an anti-war rally is scheduled for Saturday at noon on the steps of the Capitol in St. Paul. Six speakers, including Iraq vets, parents of the fallen, and anti-war activists, are scheduled to attend. (There is no word, however, if Sen. Becky Lourey will be taking part in the protest.) Given that Bush's current approval rating is on the skids in Minnesota (sliding to 41 percent last month), it would seem the anti-war tour would be met with wide-open arms in dark-blue Minneapolis. So why so quiet?

Perhaps the Bring Them Home Now Tour is still reeling from Cindy Sheehan's head-scratching interview with Neal Conan on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" earlier this week. (Click here to listen.) She has, after all, emerged as the proxy spokesperson for the anti-war movement, mostly through the right singling her out as a lone voice of the left, continually holding her up to the light to reveal all of her flaws and cracks. But whatever she's saying or isn't saying, and no matter really if she's saying it like a "flighty head case" or a mother still grieving the loss of her son, she has contributed to and shed light on a growing grassroots movement, one that has always been about more than a single person. This tour includes members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans for Peace, some of whom have been speaking out against the war since it began. The tour makes its final stop in Washington, DC on September 21, followed by the United for Peace and Justice Mobilization September 24th-26th.

Posted by at September 2, 2005 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

 

Relief at last: Katrina refugees get free admission to George Bush presidential library!

Filed under: National

If they act now, that is--this offer ends Saturday!

BUSH MUSEUM WAIVES ADMISSION FOR KATRINA REFUGEES
COLLEGE STATION, TX - The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum will waive admission fees for anyone stranded in the Bryan/College Station area by hurricane Katrina.

The Bryan/College Station area is housing a multitude of families in area hotels who are unable to return to their homes. Anyone who is stranded by hurricane Katrina can present their Louisiana or Mississippi drivers license at the museum admissions desk and receive complimentary admission. The offer for free admission runs through September 3, 2005.

The Museum at the George Bush Presidential Library hours are Monday - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from 12:00 until 5:00 p.m. Museum admission is $7.00 for adults, $5.00 for senior citizens 62+ and groups of 20 or more with reservations. Children 6 and older are $2.00 TAMU and Blinn college students as well as children under 6 are free.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 1, 2005 1:55 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans: key questions for the days ahead

Filed under: National

1) Aside from the 30-40,000 who gathered at the Superdome, how many survivors are left in New Orleans now, and how will they be gotten out before disease or dehydration overtake them?

2) Where and how will refugees be settled after the immediate evacuation crisis of the first week or so? Authorities are saying no one will be able to return for months, but the more salient fact is that a staggering number will have no means to "rebuild" and no reason to come back at all.

3) How soon can the levee breaks be closed? It appears that no more water is flowing through them for now, since the water level in the city is now equal to that in Lake Pontchartrain, but more wind and rain from future tropical storms of any magnitude could change that.

4) How much of New Orleans' urban infrastructure--buildings, water systems, sewer and septic systems--is intact, or even repairable, at this point?

5) If the answer to question 4 is "little if any," does it make sense to build another city on that site?

6) What is in the water trapped inside the New Orleans basin? What sorts of chemical and biological toxins, and in what concentration? This bears most directly on the health of the people still trapped there, but also on the cost of cleaning the site after it's drained, and the potential enviro/health risks of living there in the future.

7) Speaking of draining New Orleans, where do they propose to pump the water once they're finally able to do so, and what will be the environmental and epidemiological consequences of putting it there?

8) What is the real status of refineries and of productive drilling platforms in the Gulf? Yes, we know that a lot of oil rigs were torn loose; at least one wound up on a Mississippi shore 60 miles away. But there's a lot this does not tell us about the region's oil business--most of the rigs erected in the Gulf at a given time are exploratory drills that aren't pumping oil in significant quantities. How badly damaged is the region's oil-processing capacity--and conversely, how much of spiking fuel costs are pure gouging?

Posted by Steve Perry at September 1, 2005 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans: "looting" in perspective

Filed under: National

The wire dispatches this morning are full of reports of "lawlessness" in the streets of New Orleans. Well, no shit: Local law enforcement personnel who remain there face much the same plight as the citizens forced to forage in the streets--no food or water apart from what they can grab, no access to phones or information, no idea how or when they might get out or whether any assistance would arrive in the meantime. This morning the live WWL-TV feed included a phone call with Jarrod Mayberry, a New Orleans cop who was absolutely embittered at the way everyone left in NO, including police, were left to their own devices. He meant to get out and take his family to Texas, he said.

On TV, the newsreaders have been painting a portrait of a city roamed by armed gangs ransacking everything in sight. Yet every bit of video they can muster seems to depict people with armloads of food and clothing. Talk radio had a field day with reports of young black men carrying shoes out of a Foot Locker store, as if dry--or at least intact--shoes were a luxury in a flood zone.

Jeff St. Clair at Counterpunch passed along this anonymous note from a listserv run by writer and sociology prof Nelson Valdes:

"I have refrained from any political commentary thus far, but i will say this:... The poorest 20% (you can argue with the number -- 10%? 18%? no one knows) of the city was left behind to drown. Period. And this was the plan.

"Forget the sanctimonious bullshit about the bullheaded people who wouldn't leave. The evacuation plan was strictly laissez-faire. it depended on privately owned vehicles, and on having ready cash to fund an evacuation. The planners knew full well that the poor, who in New Orleans are overwhelmingly black, wouldn't be able to get out. The resources--meaning, the political will--weren't there to get them out.

"White per capita income in Orleans parish, 2000 census: $31,971
Black per capita: $11,332"

Posted by Steve Perry at September 1, 2005 9:20 AM | Comments (7)

 

Mayor: "most likely thousands" dead in New Orleans

Filed under: National

1:20 P.M. - (AP) Mayor Ray Nagin says at least hundreds of people are dead -- maybe thousands -- in New Orleans. "We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and others dead in attics, Mayor Ray Nagin said. Asked how many, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

Read the WDSU-TV dispatch here.

Read updates at WWL's blog here.

At this hour, there are 1254 missing persons posts at nola.com.

Posted by Steve Perry at August 31, 2005 1:55 PM | Comments (0)

 

Fox: 17th Street canal levee break now 500 feet wide

Filed under: National

"To repair damage to one of the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, t he Army Corps of Engineers said it planned to use heavy-duty Chinook helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags Wednesday into the 500-foot gap in the failed floodwall. But the agency was having trouble getting the sandbags and dozens of 15-foot highway barriers to the site because the city's waterways were blocked by loose barges, boats and large debris. Officials said they were also looking at a more audacious plan: finding a barge to plug the 500-foot hole."

Yesterday it was reported to be 200-300 feet. Story here.

Go here to see a very good slideshow posted at WWL-TV's website, including photos of the 17th Street canal levee break such as the one linked above.

Around noon today, the Army Corps of Engineers claimed that water levels between the canal and the city had equalized and that no more water was flowing into the city for the time being.

Posted by Steve Perry at August 31, 2005 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

 

Property Damage: One billion dollars!

Filed under: National

One of the more ridiculous aspects of natural disaster media coverage is the property damage estimates that inevitably emerge within hours of the pertinent event. In the present circumstances the absurdity of such projections has been magnified as the situation has rapidly devolved from a fairly routine hurricane to an emerging national disaster.

A quick search of the Nexis database shows that the figures have fluctuated wildly in the last 72 hours, providing absolutely no useful information to the public. CNNMoney reported on Monday that "risk modeling firm" Eqecat initially estimated that insurance companies would be hit with between $15 billion and $30 billion in damages. But the company then twice downgraded that figure within hours of Katrina hitting land, eventually settling on $9 billion to $16 billion.

By Tuesday morning the media seemed to have collectively agreed-- through some unknown process probably not unlike picking numbers on a roulette wheel--on the figures of $10 billion to $25 billion. Of course this is such an engulfing range that it renders the information completely useless.

Over the last 24 hours, as the situation has dramatically worsened, media outlets have hastened to ratchet up their damage projections. By 6 p.m. yesterday CNN was announcing that damages were expected to top $25 billion, while other outlets reported that the insurance costs could now reach $34 billion. This morning the Philadelphia Inquirer declared Katrina the "most expensive hurricane in the nation's history," with the property damage tally upped to $40 billion.

Perhaps they're taking bets on the final figure in Vegas. For the record, risk modeling expert Paul Demko projects that Katrina will ultimately cost insurance companies $118,434,327,612.43.

Posted by Paul Demko at August 31, 2005 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

 

Superdome refugees to be evacuated to Astrodome

Filed under: National

As late as yesterday afternoon, officials were still saying that non-critically ill refugees at New Orleans' Superdome would likely be there for up to a week. This morning Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced they would be moved by bus to Houston, where many will be sheltered in Houston's Astrodome. "Time is of the essence," she said at a press conference that just concluded on WWL-TV. "It's critical that we move quickly."

Regarding the levee breach that has necessitated the immediate evacuations, Blanco said this in an earlier TV interview: "The challenge is an engineering nightmare," Blanco said on morning TV. "The National Guard has been dropping sandbags into it, but it's like dropping it into a black hole." [Read the WWL-TV post.]

The sense of urgency is heightened by fears that New Orleans may be hit this morning by a major southbound surge of water from the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, where hurricane winds pushed a great deal of water on Monday.

Posted by Steve Perry at August 31, 2005 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

 

The worst case after all: we're losing New Orleans

Filed under: National