Bush Spreads Fear like a Bird Flu Pandemic

Ramirez L.A. Times 10/11/05

I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean. I tried to get a better handle on what the decision-making process would be by reading Mr. Barry's book on the influenza outbreak in 1918. I would recommend it…

…. The reporting needs to be not only on the birds that have fallen ill, but also on tracing the capacity of the virus to go from bird to person, to person. That's when it gets dangerous, when it goes bird-person-person. And we need to know on a real-time basis as quickly as possible, the facts, so that the scientific community, the world scientific community can analyze the facts and begin to deal with it…

…We're watching it, we're careful, we're in communications with the world. I'm not predicting an outbreak; I'm just suggesting to you that we better be thinking about it. And we are. And we're more than thinking about it; we're trying to put plans in place, and one of the plans -- back to where your original question came -- was, if we need to take some significant action, how best to do so. And I think the president ought to have all options on the table to understand what the consequences are, but -- all assets on the table -- not options -- assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant.-- President Holds Press Conference 10/4/05

Jon Stewart on his Daily Show parodied Bush’s remarks by saying that it was really worse when the flu goes from bird to person, then back to bird, then back to person again. In case repeating Stewart in print wasn’t that funny, neither is the whole avian flu scare that is in the news every day.

Fear not, fellow citizens—there is an intelligent response to this bird flu pandemic overreaching by the media: an editorial, titled An Epidemic of Overreaction in today’s Los Angeles Times easily and succinctly puts the entire issue in appropriate perspective. It is by Marc Siegel, internist and associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine and author of False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear (Wiley, 2005).

The key elements he addresses include the 1918 pandemic that Bush referred to in his news conference.

Why the overreaction? For one thing, direct comparisons to the Spanish flu of 1918, a scourge that killed more than 50 million people worldwide, has alarmed the public unnecessarily. In fact, there are many scenarios in which the current bird flu won't mutate into a form as deadly as the 1918 virus. And even if we accept the Spanish flu scenario, health conditions in 1918 were far worse in most of the world than they are now. Many people lived in squalor; 17 million
influenza deaths occurred in India, versus about half a million deaths in the U.S…

…Fear is a warning system intended to alert us to impending danger. The bird flu, though a potential large-scale danger, is not impending.The facts are these: The current H5N1 avian influenza virus has not mutated into a form that can easily infect humans, and the 60 people in the world who have died of this bird flu have done so not because this bug is on the road to mutation but because millions of birds throughout Asia have been infected, and the more birds that have it, the more likely that an occasional human bird handler will be infected. Siegel

There’s more, but you get the drift. Fear and ignorance keeps the mob confused and malleable. Knowledge is freedom. Pass it along.

Scarborough Hardballs Miers

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds—

Ralph Waldo Emerson essay on Self Reliance

Here’s more proof for me that if you live long enough, you find some depth in people where you thought there wasn’t any at all.

Joe Scarborough, former congressman and hack republican news host on MSNBC wasn’t breaking the party line until recently. Especially evident in the ensuing scandals, and lack of base-touching, by the Bush administration regarding hurricanes and Iraq War management, is that Scarborough speaks a more informed and objective mind.

The latest case in point, a conversation on Hardball with Chris Mathews on MSNBC, is Scarborough’s take on the selection, and potential for approval, of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. He was trenchant enough for me that I went to the transcript as soon as it was available today, 3 days later:

SCARBOROUGH: Republicans always blast affirmative action, but they‘re always holding up women and African-Americans and Hispanics, saying, look at us. Look how inclusive we are...I think that‘s part of it...

...But, Chris, at the end of the day, I think the president was too clever by half. He knew Harriet Miers, knew she was a conservative, knew she would vote the way he wanted her to vote...

...And when Harry Reid put her name on the list, it was too much for him to pass up and said, OK, you want her, you got her. And he thought he was going to get away with it.

And you know what? In the end, he will. She‘s going to probably pass. But, at the same time, he‘s caused a lot more scar tissue from conservatives at a time, especially with the Karl Rove possibility of indictment and Tom DeLay indictment and Iraq and Katrina and all these other things blowing up all around him—this is the time he needs his base, like Reagan needed his base in ‘87 and ‘88 during Iran Contra. This isn‘t going to help the president at all.—[emphasis added] Hardball with Chris Matthews 10/7/05

What’s more bizarre is Bush’s conservative base doesn’t know how good they’ll have it with Miers in the Supreme Court.

What's troubling for President Bush, however, is that 27 Republican senators -- almost half of his party's members in the chamber -- have publicly expressed specific doubts about Miss Miers or said they must withhold any support whatsoever for her nomination until after the hearings.—Washington Times 10/10/05

Axes to grind, distancing from an embattled president, skeptical of credentials—all these elements are part of what’s bothering those who would have been Bush’s lay-down allies several months ago. After Miers’ confirmation, all this will be a hill of beans, and Bush will have his second personally-placed Supreme Court vote for years to come.

But the echo of Scarborough’s pre-weekend prediction, “This isn‘t going to help the president at all,” may come into play more heavily when the indictments start rolling in for the likes of Rove, Libby, Delay and more in the next few weeks and months. That’s when the House Judiciary Committee can really put in some serious hearings time.

We don’t need no stinkin smoking gun—we just need a mid-term election.

Bennett—Another Point of View

"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down…"

"…an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

"…I was putting forward a bad argument in order to put it down," Bennett said, drawing sustained applause from nearly 4,500 people attending the Bakersfield Business Conference. "They reported and emphasized only the abhorrent argument, not my shooting it down."-- Bennett Blames Media for Stir Over Remarks AP 9/9/05

Due to the disproportionate numbers of African Americans arrested on false pretenses, if you “wanted to reduce crime, if that were your sole purpose,” you could abort every racist cop baby in America, “and your crime rate would go down, an impossible, ridiculous…” etc. etc.

Before the speech, local black leaders met with Bennett for an hour.

"He heard our outrage and our hurt, but he didn't say he was sorry," said Irma Carson, a Bakersfield councilwoman. "We didn't take (his comment) out of context, because there's no context in which those comments would fit."-- Bennet Blames Media

Irma Carson, that’s the emmes!

ElBaradei: Best Choice for Nobel

What I’m trying to do is put a stop to this madness…
Nobel Peace Prize Winner ElBaradei

Christopher Dickey, Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief and I’m proud to say my friend of many years, was one of the few reporters granted an interview with Mohamed ElBaradei. The entire post appears on Chris’s wonderful blog, The Shadowland Journal,

Dickey: What do you think Iran wants out of all this?

ElBaradei: Iran wants to get the best from its own perspective. Obviously it wants to get the maximum technology, and not just nuclear. Reactor technology is key for them. They want IT, all the modern technology, Airbus, Boeing. They need the technology to modernize. And I think they understand that the fuel cycle enables them to be part of the big boys club, and it’s a smart insurance policy, if they can get that, because again it sends a message to their neighbors. Iran wants to be a major player in the whole Middle East which is being reshaped right now. …I don’t want to speak for them, but they also would like to normalize their relationship, ultimately, with the US. Their dialogue with Europe is a bridge toward their ultimate normalization with the US. So these are the things that I guess are on their agenda. But I can’t speak for them.

So, again, when you talk about the nuclear program in Iran you are talking about regional politics, regional security – global politics, global security. So, you will have the European agenda, the American agenda, the Iranian agenda, the neighbors agenda, the Israelis, the Arabs. Everybody is affected by how this dialogue between Europe and Iran will play out. I think everybody understands that it is not just the nuclear issue, it is the whole future of the Middle East, it is the whole future of regional security, global security. That’s why it makes it more difficult, and that’s why it takes time, and that’s why people should be patient. As long as they are talking, I’m comfortable. As long as the fuel cycle is suspended, as long as they are making progress, keep at it.

Dickey: The Europeans are sounding very pessimistic these days. It’s very hard to see in the current environment how the Americans are going to offer security guarantees and a face-saving solution for this Iranian regime.

ElBaradei: The number one threat for the entire world is weapons of mass destruction. I’d rather assure our security first, and then I’ll worry about all the other issues: legitimizing regimes, democracy, human rights. If we do not have global security it might be too late to think about any of these issues. So unless I have defanged all the potential proliferators or terrorists or what have you I will not have a chance to discuss these other issues. It’s a question of priorities.Dickey: What is the risk that talks will collapse and we’ll be looking at a breakout, Iran just walking away from the table and the treaty.ElBaradei: I am still hoping that at the end of the day, with all the posturing, nobody can afford a confrontation. Confrontation is a lose-lose proposition. … You might see some hiccups in the process, some delays in the process, but I think we need to keep at it.

Dickey: At the end of the day, do you think Iran will become a virtual weapons state?

ElBaradei: [long sigh] What I’m trying to do is put a stop to this madness…

Whatever controversy may abide over Elbaradei receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, thoughtful people who are concerned for the safety of their species will find there was no better choice.

Two Minds with but a Single Thought

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.—Edward R Murrow

Bush’s ratings in the polls stink. He gives a speech saying Iraq is the answer to fighting worldwide terrorism to try to bolster some kind of support. Mayor Bloomberg of New York is having political difficulties as he faces re-election. He “had been invited to appear at a mayoral debate Thursday evening, but declined -- a decision that has brought him considerable criticism.”

What’s the quickest way to create a diversion and make leadership look solid and in control?

New York City's subway system was put under heightened alert Thursday after officials received information from the FBI about a "specific threat," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.—CNN

And to help with the Iraq connection:

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the threat was “specific to place, time and method,” which was a bombing. The official said the information resulted from the arrest of al-Qaida operatives in Iraq.—MSNBC

But there is a soft underbelly to this fearmongering:

The Department of Homeland Security said the intelligence community believes the information is of "doubtful" credibility.—Newsday

It’s not as if this scare is a total loss—there is still the undercurrent in the media about bird flu pandemic, which could kill millions. Don’t think Bush hasn’t got some ideas about how to fight bird flu:

A call by President George W. Bush for Congress to give him the power to use the military in law enforcement roles in the event of a bird flu pandemic has been criticized as akin to introducing martial law.

Bush said aggressive action would be needed to prevent a potentially
disastrous U.S. outbreak of the disease that is sweeping through Asian poultry and which experts fear could mutate to pass between humans.—CNN, Bush military bird flu role slammed

What this country needs is a calming assurance from our leaders that will let us all sleep better and build our immune systems so we won’t be so susceptible to all these viruses—and work for common goals, instead of constantly playing “duck and cover.”

That takes courageous leadership, because the consequence of a fearful populace is an easily led one, like sheep, which helps if you’re a fearful leader.

The Fitzgerald Wait Comes to an End

Although he was not designated as such in the indictment, the grand jury named the President, among others, as an unindicted coconspirator.-- UNITED STATES v. NIXON 418 U.S. 683 (1974) Decided July 24, 1974.

That was then.

And this is now:

Prediction: at least three high level Bush Administration personnel indicted and possibly one or more very high level unindicted co-conspirators.— Plamegate: The Next Step

As I have asked more than once in this blog, When will Fitzgerald take action?—seems like the answer is, finally, very soon.

Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer’s leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won’t be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.— Without protection, Rove to testify on CIA leak, AP 9/06/05

And this could be then and now:

Today, in one of the most difficult decisions of my
presidency, I accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the White House, [Karl Rove and Scooter Libby], two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know . .—Republican Presidential quotes from Richard M. Nixon to George W. Bush

"Rove" and "Libby" obviously substituted for "Haldeman" and "Erlichman."

...I wonder if Bush is quoting Nixon privately:

“I don’t give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up or anything else, if it’ll save it—save this plan. That’s the whole point. We’re going to protect our people if we can."


Thankfully Fitzgerald gives a shit, and so do we, the people.

Al Gore’s Take on the Media and Democracy

Here’s some good news and bad news:

The good news first – Al Gore’s speech today on the state of American media and the threat to American democracy is brilliant and illuminating.

The bad news – he’s not the President of the United States.

The decline of the public discourse, through the printed word, which has brought us to this day of entertainment/news, is the subject of Gore’s thesis that our country’s freedoms depended on this “check and balance.”

“Whether it is called a Public Forum, or a "Public Sphere," or a marketplace of ideas, the reality of open and free public discussion and debate was considered central to the operation of our democracy in America's earliest decades.

In fact, our first self-expression as a nation - "We the People" - made it clear where the ultimate source of authority lay. It was universally understood that the ultimate check and balance for American government was its accountability to the people. And the public forum was the place where the people held the government accountable. That is why it was so important that the marketplace of ideas operated independent from and beyond the
authority of government.”-- Remarks by Al Gore as prepared Associated Press / The Media Center October 5, 2005

Gore’s clear and brilliant discussion of how the state of discourse has been reduced to a one-way path through the advent of radio, television, and advertising, covers familiar ground but creates new synthesis along the way. That is the intelligence of the thesis, and its clarity is the reason for the bad news that such boorish and garish greed for power instead inhabits the leadership of our nation.

“It is important to note that the absence of a two-way conversation in American television also means that there is no "meritocracy of ideas" on television. To the extent that there is a "marketplace" of any kind for ideas on television, it is a rigged market, an oligopoly, with imposing barriers to entry that exclude the average citizen.”-- Gore

Gore’s conclusion is that in the internet lies the possibility of the rebirth of the “public discourse.” The entire speech is worth reading, but as many of the commenters on the sight indicated, you may come away less with the message that Gore is promoting, and more with the feeling that the speaker himself represents a greatness of mind and spirit that is absent from American politics.

The Moral Morass is in us

Three generations of the Bush family. Seated in the center
are President George W. Bush's paternal grandparents,
Prescott Bush, who served as a senator from Connecticut
from 1952 to 1963, and his wife, Dorothy Walker Bush.
A boyish George W. Bush stands at the far left next to his
parents, George and Barbara Bush, and his brothers Jeb and Neil.

This whole Harriet Miers thing has everyone in a quandary. It’s really quite simple. It has to do with longevity. There’s a big sinister plan going on that has nothing to do with the presidency or politics, even though it seems like it does. It’s about family, and cronies, and greed and power

.…As many dynasties near the end of their runs, the rulers often feel so secure about their station that they lift the veil on their own weirdness to revel publicly in their own exceptionalism.[emphasis added]—Rigorous Intuition, Jeff Wells, 9/19/05

President Bush named White House counsel Harriet Miers to a Supreme Court in transition Monday, turning to a longtime loyalist without experience as a judge or publicly known views on abortion to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.—AP 10/3/05

There is still much to learn about Harriet E. Miers, but in naming her to the Supreme Court, President Bush revealed something about himself: that he has no appetite, at a time when he and his party are besieged by problems, for an all-out ideological fight.—New York Times, 10/4/05

In her 1989 run for Dallas City Council, Harriet Miers filled out a questionnaire from the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition of Dallas, where she indicated her support for full civil rights for gays and lesbians and backed AIDS education programs for the city of Dallas...—Drudge Report 10/4/05

Watching Bush on C-SPAN. He just said that he picked Harriet because he knew she wouldn't change. That in 20 years she'll be the same as she is today.Except that 20 years ago she gave money to Gore and the DNC. That's someone who won't change!—AmericaBlog 10/4/05

"Not to my recollection have I ever sat down with her [to discuss abortion],"—George W. Bush Press Conference 10/4/05

The favors that Bush and his cronies require would not have to be spelled out. Just don’t be surprised when, sometime during the post George W. presidency, Bush states in an interview when asked about Roberts and Miers, “They’re doing a heck of a job.”

In the same week Bush picked his close staff member of 10 years for the Supreme Court, Delay was indicted on charges of money laundering, to go along with last week’s conspiracy charge. As Frank Rich eloquently delineates the corruption rampant in the Bush administration, can we find a pattern?

The DeLay and Abramoff investigations are not to be confused with the many others percolating in the capital, including, most famously of late, the Justice Department and S.E.C. inquiries into the pious Bill Frist's divine stock-sale windfall and the homeland security inspector general's promised inquiry into possible fraud in the no-bid contracts doled out by FEMA for Hurricane Katrina. The mother of all investigations, of course, remains the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's pursuit of whoever outted the C.I.A. agent Valerie Wilson to Robert
Novak and whoever may have lied to cover it up. The denouement is on its way.

But whatever the resolution of any of these individual dramas, they will not be the end of the story. Like the continuing revelations of detainee abuse emerging from Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, this is a crisis in the governing culture, not the tale of a few bad apples. Every time you turn over a rock, you find more vermin. We've only just learned from The Los Angeles Times that Joseph Schmitz, until last month the inspector general in charge of policing waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon, is himself the focus of a Congressional inquiry. He is accused of blocking the investigation of another Bush appointee who is suspected of siphoning Iraq reconstruction contracts to business cronies. At the Justice Department, the F.B.I. is looking into why a career prosecutor was demoted after he started probing alleged Abramoff illegality in Guam. According to The Los Angeles Times, the demoted prosecutor was then replaced by a Rove-approved Republican pol who just happened to be a cousin of a major target of another corruption investigation in Guam.—Frank Rich, 10/2/05 New York Times

Here is a story that depicts a pattern:

After more than an hour of solemn ceremony naming Rep. Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, as the 2007-08 House speaker, Gov. Jeb Bush stepped to the podium in the House chamber last week and told a short story about "unleashing Chang," his "mystical warrior" friend.

Here are Bush's words, spoken before hundreds of lawmakers and politicians:

''Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society.''I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down.''

Bush then unsheathed a golden sword and gave it to Rubio as a gift.

''I'm going to bestow to you the sword of a great conservative warrior,'' he said, as the crowd roared.-- Gov. Bush & his mystical buddy, Gainesville.com 9/18/05

Here's Jeff Wells’ Rigorous Intuition blog analysis of Jeb Bush’s homage to his father, George’s, “Chang” reference:

We know a lot of nasty and weird things about the Bush family, and we have good cause to suspect a lot worse. What's more, they know we know…

… And they know, and we know, that these things will not be spoken in the mass media. And so they enjoy the liberty of winking at us…

… They know what signs they send. As many dynasties near the end of their runs, the rulers often feel so secure about their station that they lift the veil on their own weirdness to revel publicly in their own exceptionalism.[emphasis added]-- Rigorous Intuition, Jeff Wells, 9/19/05

We, the people, have no champion, no sword to wield, and no cause to uphold, because “the rulers” have muddied up the playing field so completely. Cindy Sheehan can’t dig us out of this moral dilemma, nor will John McCain, Hillary, any of them.

We have created the soil for these weeds to grow; we must start cleaning up. It’s not as simple as JFK’s "ask what you can do for your country." It’s ending the condoning of racism, the acceptance of poverty, and the NIMBY attitude that ignores the great truth of our country, and the world—we are all one, and we have to know it and behave as if we know it.

Impeachment Delight

Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night. When everything's a little clearer in the light of day.--"Afternoon Delight" The Starland Vocal Band

Here on the Left Coast the events of the world seem to occur in a tape delay. We know when it's 7 AM here and we're watching the outdoor street shots of the Today Show in Manhattan, and it's just dawn in those shots, but it's really 10 AM there, we are not watching the absolute up to the second breaking news. When Imus has his second bagel at 5:30 in the morning, and we're just trying to regain consciousness, it's really 8:30 in his New York MSNBC studio and business is well under way for the East Coast Blue State.

That's why I'm hoping to be there when the breaking news of the moment happens at the announcement that the House Judiciary Committee has started impeachment hearings for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Despite the semi-derisive comments I have received from family, friends, and online over the past few months when I have made this prognostication, I am of the firm belief the day of judgment and truth draws nearer.

The Huf (Huffington Post) gives me further reason to anticipate my vindication, in several stories they reference this morning (or this afternoon if you live East of me):

Source to Stephanopoulos: President Bush Directly Involved In Leak Scandal

Near the end of a round table discussion on ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos dropped this bomb:

"Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it's a manageable one for the White House especially if we don't know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions."ThinkProgress.org

Another post has Norman Lear ruminating over his reaction of joy that Tom Delay was indicted for conspiracy last week:

The Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount would not have me gloating over what was certain to be another person's problem.-- What Would Jesus Do...with Tom Delay? Norman Lear, Huffington Post

As I indicated in an admittedly mean-spirited reaction (which was summarily censured and not printed) to Lear's doubt about his Schadenfreude, I don't see the problem. Rather than a glee in the downfall of Bush and Cheney, I would be delighted that justice would be served, and that the emerging truth could help ward off future subversion of the constitutional oath by greedy power-hungry pretenders to public service.

That's why I don't want to miss that breaking news.

On the other hand, as Arianna Huffington points out, after the release of New York Times reporter Judith Miller from jail, where she was for contempt of court in not revealing the source of her information on Plamegate to the grand jury, the mainstream media may be missing the point altogether:

Today, Sunday, there is not a single mention of Judy Miller in the entire New York Times (except a correction about a July 2003 Miller article on WMD in Iraq). Has the New York Times ceased journalistic operations?-- [emphasis added] Sunday's New York Times: Orwell's Memory Hole, Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post 10-02-05

BYOBA

This story gets lost in the midst of Delay, Miller, Robertson, Hurricane cleanup etc. It is right out of another dimension, with signposts up ahead: The Rumsfeld Zone…

Nearly a year after Congress demanded action, the Pentagon has still failed to figure out a way to reimburse soldiers for body armor and equipment they purchased to better protect themselves while serving in Iraq.

Soldiers and their parents are still spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for armor they say the military won’t provide…

…Your expectation is that when you are sent to war, that our government does everything they can do to protect the lives of our people, and anything less than that is not good enough,” said a former Marine who spent nearly $1,000 two weeks ago to buy lower-body armor for his son, a Marine serving in Fallujah…

…“The bottom line is that Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department are failing soldiers again,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Operation Truth, an advocacy group for Iraq veterans.—[emphasis added] AP 9/29/05

Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut is looking into the matter. He says, “If you have to go out and buy equipment to protect yourself, you’re going to get reimbursed.” Better yet, if you’re going to serve your country as a soldier, your country better fully equip you or not send you out in the first place.

There is an amazing account of the waiver of minimal protection in a May 9, 2005 article in Army Times. The reason for the waivers:

“I concurred with the program manager’s decision to waive the 11 lots in order to rapidly replace the PASGT flaks with a superior, advanced body-armor system,” [Gen. William] Catto said in the statement. “Due to the massive deployment associated with [Operation Iraqi Freedom], this was considered to be an urgent need, and was deemed to be in the best interest of deployed Marines at that time.”...

...The waivers came at a time when U.S. forces were facing increased risk from roadside bombs, ambushes and intense urban combat.--Army Times 5/9/05

“Be Part of the Action,” “Aim High,” “It’s not just a job. It’s an adventure!” "Be all that you can be,” “BYOBA” [Bring Your Own Body Armor].

And check out this incredible post by Paul Rieckhoff, veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Executive Director and Founder of Operation Truth, America's first and largest Iraq Veterans group at Huffington Post.

New Orleans Katrina Rumor Grist Mill

New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie
Compass, right, announces his retirement as
Mayor Ray Nagin looks on in New Orleans,
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005.(AP Photo/LM Otero)


If I hear one more time on cable news, or read in the L. A. Times or N. Y. Times, or see some anchor person reading another report, that the stories about the mayhem following Hurricane Katrina in NOLA were exaggerated—I’m still not gonna believe it didn't happen!

Somewhere in my intuition—we’re all intuitive but some of us recognize the signals more than others and trust them—I know there’s something fishy about back-tracking and dog-legging, or whatever else you want to call revising, the news reports of the gun-wielding looters, the baby-rapers, the homicidal down-and-outters, that we all came to see as the descent of mankind into animalism, as Mayor Ray Nagin put it, that the mainstream media, aided and pushed forth by the police, military, and whoever else doesn’t want to be blamed for what went wrong, are shoving at us periodically the last few days.

In other words, someone, or some group, or some entity or entities, have something to gain, or some foothold they don’t want to lose, by downplaying the amount of violence, cruelty, and general anarchy that overtook NOLA when the streets were flooded and the power was out.

Beyond doubt, the sense of menace had been ignited by genuine disorder and violence that week. Looting began at the moment the storm passed over New Orleans, and it ranged from base thievery to foraging for the necessities of life.

Police officers said shots were fired for at least two nights at a police station on the edge of the French Quarter. The manager of a hotel on Bourbon Street said he saw people running through the streets with guns. At least one person was killed by a gunshot at the convention center, and a second at the Superdome. A police officer was shot in Algiers during a confrontation with a looter.

It is still impossible to say if the city experienced a wave of murder because autopsies have been performed on slightly more than 10 percent of the 885 dead…

…In an interview last week with The New York Times, Superintendent Compass said that some of his most shocking statements turned out to be untrue. Asked about reports of rapes and murders, he said: "We have no official reports to document any murder. Not one official report of rape or sexual assault." -- [emphasis added] September 29, 2005 Fear Exceeded Crime's Reality in New Orleans By JIM DWYER and CHRISTOPHER DREW New York Times

Compass resigned this week as the mayor called him a hero. There is speculation that Compass was forced out by the mayor due to his poor performance, which wasn’t that good before the hurricane events. Maybe Compass is back-tracking on his former descriptions of a town gone wild because he couldn’t control it and doesn’t want the blame either way. Nagin had this to say about Compass:

"He leaves the department in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership."-- Police Chief Abruptly Resigns in New OrleansBy MARIA NEWMAN New York Times September 27, 2005

Everybody covers for each other down in the Bayou. Carolyn Kay at Make Them Accountable.com has some first-hand ideas, having lived in the area:

Why would the African American police chief help propel the rumors? Maybe it was to make it sound as though the police under his command couldn’t possibly have acted better…

…BuzzFlash and Daily Kos are describing the reports of exaggeration as the mainstream media’s way of downplaying the suffering after Katrina. I don’t agree. I was born and raised in Louisiana and lived in New Orleans for almost 15 years. I think that the stories of rampant rape and murder were part of a racist hysteria that fueled the emotional fires leading to Gretna police refusing to allow anyone from New Orleans to walk across the Mississippi River bridge to dry ground, and the Baton Rouge police acting as though the evacuees in their city would start rioting at any moment.—email from Make Them Accountable.com

While the media is going along with all of this downplaying of horrendous events, because the reports are unsubstantiated at this point, the fact remains that neither side of the story has been proven true or false. The picture of Oprah standing at the entrance to the Superdome and being told by the mayor of huge chaos and crimes being committed, may still be appropriate as to what actually was happening.

Reports of dozens of rapes at both facilities - many allegedly involving small children - may forever remain a question mark. Rape is a notoriously underreported crime under ideal circumstances, and tracking down evidence at this point, with evacuees spread all over the country, would be nearly impossible. The same goes for reports of armed robberies at both sites.

Numerous people told The Times-Picayune that they had witnessed rapes, in particular attacks on two young girls in the Superdome ladies room and the killing of one of them, but police and military officials said they know nothing of such an incident.

Soldiers and police did confirm at least one attempted rape of a child. Riley said a man tried to sexually assault a young girl, but was "beaten up" by civilians and apprehended by police. It was unclear if that incident was the one that gained wide currency among evacuees.—NOLA.com, Brian Thevenot and Gordon Russell Staff writers

That’s why next time I am confronted with the news story, which is still ongoing, that what we were told happened in NOLA really wasn’t all that bad, I’m going to remember what NOPD Captain Jeff Winn said:

NOPD Capt. Jeff Winn's 20-member SWAT team responded on about 10 occasions to calls from the Convention Center, usually after reports of shots being fired. The group found people huddled in the fetal position, lying flat on the ground to avoid bullets or running for the exits. They also heard stories of gang rapes, armed robberies and other violent crimes, but no victims ever came forward while his officers were in the building, he said.

"What's true and what's not, we don't really know," he said.--NOLA.com, Brian Thevenot and Gordon Russell Staff writers

And that’s the truth right now—we don’t really know.

Score: 1-0 Veterans vs. Seniors

Got an email from my dad this morning asking “how stupid are we?” This time he was referring to an email he received from Families USA.org, which is a watchdog group for healthcare consumers. Here’s what inflamed my dad, who, as a former pharmacist, is concerned and dismayed by the constant inequities in government healthcare aid for seniors.

...for the 50 drugs most frequently prescribed to seniors, the lowest Medicare discount card price was almost always considerably higher than the lowest price negotiated by one large government purchaser, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The median difference between the lowest Medicare discount card price and the best price available from the VA was 58.2 percent. This means that, for half of the top 50 drugs prescribed to seniors, the purchase price with a discount card was at least 58.2 percent higher than for those same drugs purchased through the VA.--Report from Families USA September 2005 "Getting the Best Price:Lessons Learned from theMedicare Discount"
Card

…The best way to make medicines affordable for seniors is to allow Medicare to negotiate for better prices directly with drug companies, the way the VA successfully does," said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. "The continued prohibition against such bargaining will not only hurt seniors, but it will also fleece the American taxpayer."

…"A big reason why the new Medicare program is so costly is because Congress and the President chose to support the pharmaceutical lobby over the interests of America's seniors and taxpayers," said Pollack. [emphasis added]–Press Release from Families USA 9/27/05

My dad's concern is twofold: the government gives the seniors a bad deal, then tells them what a good deal it is. And the media, too lazy to do any research beyond the partisan press releases, is in on the lie.

All of this should come as no surprise in the post-hurricane days of no-bid FEMA contracts, politicians like Frist and Delay enmeshed in ethics dilemmas, and general “crony capitalism” as Robert Scheer calls the Republican game of “take care of your friends and leave the risks of the free market for the suckers.” How do these guys get away with it—all? We’re letting them.

My dad has been writing to me over a year regarding the Medicare drug plan and its discount card, which has to be purchased:

“…as senior citizens we are being bombarded by the insurance co's who want to run Medicare with all the money they got from bush's signing of the Medicare bill”--3/18/2004

He also copies me on letters to the editor which reflect his obvious frustration.

“…You write what big pharma tells you and I have to laugh when you end your piece "Medicare officials predict the initial premiums will be about $35 a month"---who are they kidding? Give the millions of Medicare recipients a little more credit ---they are not all stupid”—9/12/2005 letter to editor re: Miami Herald article 9/2/05 by Larry Lipman “MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT AARP ads aim to educate"

As I indicated in this blog back in May, the senior Medicare drug card is a government smoke-and-mirrors scam intended to fatten the coffers of the drug companies. As long as we, the people, are not fooled by this nonsense, we can continue to demand appropriate government aid in healthcare. But if the mainstream press is going to front for these scammers, we’re going to need a lot more help than we’ve been getting.

As my dad emailed me about the "crony leader," in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

“…he's out preaching as to how they've made the Medicare Rx plan better so all the seniors should pay a smaller premium and join up---what a scam artist--you're 10 years away from his clutches.”—9/30/05

Funny, Dad, but I feel like he’s got me where he wants me right now.

Cooler heads prevail (not really, read on)—on a different note, a man above cronyism—head of the Federal Reserve--Alan Greenspan, offers this piercing clear-cut perspective on the economy for all of us sophisticated American taxpaying consumers:

“Therefore, because it is difficult to suppress growing market exuberance when the economic environment is perceived as more stable, a highly flexible system needs to be in place to rebalance an economy in which psychology and asset prices could change rapidly. Indeed, as I have pointed out in the past, policies to enhance economic flexibility need to be as integral a part of economic policy as are monetary and fiscal initiatives.”-- Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan - Economic flexibility To the National Association for Business Economics Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois (via satellite) September 27, 2005

I have no idea what that means--that—from the individual who determines how much money millions and millions of Americans will pay every month on any debt they carry. At least you can be sure that Greenspan’s pockets weren’t greased to make him say that.

The ball is back in our—we the people’s—court again. If this is representative government, then we can’t blame our elected representatives if we don’t care enough to get on their backs and tell them what we want. I am sure one thing we want is an honest, straightforward explanation of policies and available aid that affect our daily pocketbooks. Next step is to have a say in those policies. The time of Americans being treated like the Roman mob by benevolent dictators is over.

The rise to the surface, as in the quote from I’ Claudius, of all these poisons, may be just the ticket for their purging.

Time to email my congress people. Again.

Migrant Abuse Costs Rancher Land, Freedom

Letter from Morris Dees,
Chief Counsel, Southern
Poverty Law Center
[Click to enlarge photo]

A letter from Morris Dees, Chief Counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center, describes the “dramatic legal victory” that is at the heart of the debate on Latino immigration. Dees writes

“Two years ago, on a dark Texas night, two Salvadoran migrants looking for work were captured by armed members of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue. While Fatima Leiva and Edwin Mancia were held at gunpoint, Casey Nethercott sicced his Rottweiler on Edwin and beat him with a pistol.

Today, thanks to support from people like you and the bravery of our clients, Nethercott is in jail and Fatima and Edwin own his 70-acre paramilitary compound.

Law enforcement officials and community leaders have praised our work. They recognize that armed vigilantes are a danger to everyone near the border, including border agents trying to uphold the law.

…This is not the first time we’ve seized a hate group’s compound to satisfy a judgment that we won on behalf of the hate crime victims. In 1987, for example, we took the headquarters of the United Klans of America for the lynching death of a black teenager. More recently, we forced the Aryan Nations to deed its Idaho compound to a mother and son who were terrorized by hate group members.

Thoughtful people can have different opinions about how we ought to deal with immigration problems facing our country. But one thing we can all agree on is that violence and racism have no place in that debate.”—Excerpt from Morris Dees letter, September 23, 2005

“Torre John “Jack” Foote, president of Ranch Rescue, has described Mexicans as “dog turds…ignorant, uneducated and desperate…” Such rhetoric is “very similar to (that of) hate groups we have seen in the past,” said SPLC founder Morris Dees, chief trial lawyer in the case.”—Tucson Citizen, August 22, 2005[requires payment]

“Mr. Mancía and Ms. Leiva were caught on a ranch in Hebbronville, Tex., in March 2003 by Mr. Nethercott and other members of Ranch Rescue. The two immigrants later accused Mr. Nethercott of threatening them and of hitting Mr. Mancía with a pistol, charges that Mr. Nethercott denied. The immigrants also said the group gave them cookies, water and a blanket and let them go after an hour or so.

The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison.

Mr. Mancía and Ms. Leiva also filed a lawsuit against Mr. Nethercott; Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue; and the owner of the Hebbronville ranch, Joe Sutton. The immigrants said the ordeal, in which they feared that they would be killed by the men they thought were soldiers, had left them with post-traumatic stress.

Mr. Sutton settled for $100,000. Mr. Nethercott and Mr. Foote did not defend themselves, so the judge issued default judgments of $850,000 against Mr. Nethercott and $500,000 against Mr. Foote.”-- 2 Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court By ANDREW POLLACK New York Times, August 19, 2005

Aberrational? Outlandish? Bunch of hicks we would never associate with?

At a birthday party for my elementary school daughter last year, one
of her friends’ dad began to explain to me, in raw disgusting language, about
the influx of the “cockroach Mexicans and their cocksucking families,” --was how he described the immigration situation in Southern California. How he
thought it was OK to use that language to me, someone whom he had never met, made me believe that for most of my neighbors, that thinking and general belief is acceptable.

At the request of Mr. Dees’ post script in his letter, I share this story with anyone willing to read it, in the hope that it will help educate, and rid us of ignorance:

“Please share [this] with friends and speak out against the kind of racist, xenophobic violence that is spreading in our country.”

You Don't Have to be Catholic...

Just when I thought the fiasco of bigotry was peaking, between the mis-labelled "minutemen" of the horrendous southwestern vigilante border patrols, to the amazing stereotyping of over 1 billion Muslims in the world as terrorists because of the aberrant fanatic behavior of some who claim Islam as their religion, I hear a story on KNX radio yesterday that is a perfect irony, like a perfect storm.

Without access to a transcript, I will have to recount what I heard as I was driving across Orange County freeways. The afternoon news moderators on KNX, who have less than a major resume of journalism for one person in both of their backgrounds, still make the noble attempt at conversational newsy stories to interest those of us their producers must think are having that afternoon post-A.M. coffee, post-lunch, let-down, so we won't either turn on the hard-rock station, or worse, with sattelite radio, move over to the early show of Chris Matthews "Hard-Ball" on MSNBC, or the Playboy channel, which is available for a few extra bucks a month on subscription. Makes sense to me--the Playboy channel on radio.

So the two chatty and overly-enthusiastic news people, a man and a woman, are going to discuss a non-Hurricane Rita related story in order to break the boredom of having to listen to constant updates of the same old thing--the biggest storm to hit the Texas Gulf in history, over and over again, please, haven't we heard enough? Seems like that would be the ONLY story on the air--but we do have that short attention span thingy.

At least we had that amazing story of the Jetblue landing with the screwed up front landing gear--I'm not sure today which was more incredible: that the people on the plane got to see themselves in mortal jeopardy on little LCD screens in the back of the seat in front of them on MSNBC live, just like I got to watch it at home while I ate my ham and cheese sandwich--or, that Jetblue has had several planes with bad landing gear problems in the past and, in true NASA-style fashion, hasn't gotten around to fixing them yet, evidently.

Actually I am interested in the Hurricane Rita catastrophe about-to-happen because I am concerned for all of those people, their homes, and their businesses. It's impossible to imagine the devastastion these storms cause, even with the TV coverage--"Geraldo is in the path of the storm!" --I was so annoyed by this pandering to some twisted sadistic part of me that I would HOPE that not only was Geraldo in the path of the storm but that it would rip him apart and throw his body parts in front of the ever-present cameras for us all to relish--thank God I'm not into that--so I changed the radio dial (yup--satellite radio again...) From FOX (pardon ME) to MSNBC and heard, "Rita Cosby is in the path of the oncoming hurricane." I came to the conclusion that Geraldo and Rita were getting major publicity for being idiots, while their respective crews were just staying in harm's way for...what? I don't know. I don't get "hero" in my inner spiritual ear, I get "dumbbell, get outta there! Let Geraldo and Rita hold their own cameras up." I don't think Geraldo and Rita are idiots in general, but I'm not gonna get in front of a hurricane category 4+ even if you give me major benefits and a long close-up. Time off with pay, now we can start the negotiations...

So what was the news yesterday that mesmerised me and woke me from my otherwise afternoon stupor in the car? There was a report that the Catholic Church, either in California or nationally--I didn't hear that part because I was looking for the left turn into Burger King so I could scarf down a $1 Whopper Jr. There is NO BETTER VALUE on the planet! So I missed the beginning of the report because I was distracted--The Catholic Church was declaring, not for the record, that Gays would not be acceptable as Priests. This was not for publication, but nevertheless it was on KNX radio with the chit-chatty news people asking what did we all think about that? And, they also had asked a few people already what did they all think about this, not the LEAST OF WHOM was His Eminence, Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles.

This was very cool, because the news guys explained that before Cardinal Mahoney was told that the interviewer had access to this memo, which said that gays as priests was a no-no, His Eminence was asked point blank what he thought of the issue--should gays be allowed into the priesthood? His answer, and here is the punchline at last, because I thought I heard it all and at my age I should know there's always more to come--Cardinal Mahoney said that he was not concerned about the sexuality of the individual, gay or straight, as long as that individual is celibate. You know--like how priests and nuns don't have sex, because the Catholic Church forbids it. Which reminds me of this joke--nevermind...

Get it? And I know you do--bigotry against abnormal, extra-biblical, sinful anti-Christian homosexuals has come to an end! But if you have sex outside of marriage, which the state and the church say is impossible for gays and lesbians, then you have crossed the line, you are beneath the rest of us, indeed you are an unrecoverable sub-human who has issues, yes, issues with sex, and lust, and impropriety.

Although this was not an issue with the most famous Jew of all time, Jesus Christ--he was more concerned with getting the basic ducks in order, about loving each other, and caring for each other, in the greater human family, not just one's immediate family. Can you imagine what he would have thought about asking a person not to have sex in order to be a rabbi? I think he and Mary Magdalene would have had a good laugh.

Ecumenical Simon Weisenthal

"Grave of Unknown Thousands" Dachau 1971
[click on photo to enlarge]
Photo by Goldenberg


Dachau 1971
[click on photo to enlarge]
Photo by Goldenberg

I have survived. And as a survivor I am a witness. If this survival, of the horrors that are summoned up today in the term HOLOCAUST, is to have had any purpose, then it is above all that of keeping awake the memory of the unimaginable, to prevent forgetting and repression and to build all this into the vision of a better future, where such things or anything like them can never happen again anywhere in this world. --Speech at Mauthausen on 7.5.1995 Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal, who after surviving five death camps helped track down Nazi war criminals and then spent the rest of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Wiesenthal, who helped find one-time SS leader Adolf Eichmann and the policeman who arrested Anne Frank, died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

"I think he'll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice," Hier told The Associated Press.--AP 9/20/05

I own a book signed by Simon Weisenthal, titled Sails of Hope. It is the background history of Christopher Columbus, whom Weisenthal proves through his research, was Jewish. Just the simple fact alone that Columbus was a cartographer of vague origin was enough for me, since Weisenthal explained that the only cartographers in Europe in the 15th century were Jewish.

I got his signature at the time I attended a speech he gave in Los Angeles in 1978. I never forgot his main message of that speech, which was quite simple, and yet profound at the same time: Along with 6 million Jewish non-combatants murdered by the Nazis in WWII, there were also an additional 5 million civilian non-Jews, including political dissidents, religious leaders, gypsies, handicapped and retarded people, and others--11 million total non-military deaths at the hands of the Nazi killing machine. Weisenthal said that after the War, the Jewish leaders could have gotten a great deal more world-wide support for causes including the Zionist establishment of Israel as a Jewish homeland, if they had asserted the figure of 11 million killed in WWII instead of concentrating on the 6 million Jewish dead and not mentioning enough the other 5 million.

The notion of excluding acknowledging the whole group of civilians who were murdered by the Nazis was novel to me at the time, and since then I consider it as a basic theme of my development of views against bias, bigotry, and racism. Until the citizens of the United States, and by extension the people of the world, see the plight of a single group as the responsibility of everyone, the lesson that Weisenthal referred to above about the Holocaust will not have been learned.