Daily Flog: Economy, Iraq missions accomplished, Bush finally tries Afghanistan rescue

Posted by Harkavy at 8:17 AM, October 28, 2008

After the administration let the economy and various wars veer out of control, the administration is wading into Wall Street to rescue bankers and thinking about rescuing homeowners. Now it's even considering negotiating to rescue our troops from Afghanistan.

What's next? A withdrawal from Iraq?

The Afghanistan situation is so serious that as the Wall Street Journal reports ("U.S. Mulls Talks With Taliban in Bid to Quell Afghan Unrest"):

But until late summer 2001, the Bush regime was muddling along in a generally uncontroversial way when the unthinkable (not to the regime) happened on 9/11. That tragedy unleashed the Bush regime on the world. So far, his administration has wrecked Iraq, made a bad situation in Afghanistan worse, and presided over a historic Wall Street crash that threatens the entire world economy.

That's three exhibits right there for the new George W. Bush Presidential Libary being erected in Dallas. It would be nice if the libary put those three exhibits in the same hall, next to the Pet Goat Reading Room, which would display the August 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing with the same kind of reverence that real libraries afford the U.S. Constitution.

Bush's job as president is almost finished; there are no more worlds to conquer us. Unless, as Mike Bloomberg has done in New York City, Bush's handlers try to undemocratically erase term limits so he can serve a third term.

Is there a groundswell for abolishing presidential term limits? While you're being pinned to the ground by current events, listen for one. . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Salem-News.com: 'Hell Freezes Over: White House Drug Czar Backs Decriminalization'

Wall Street Journal: 'Rescue Plan Faces Delays In Hiring Asset Managers'

BBC: 'NATO's Afghan forces "hit limit" '

CNN: 'Global stocks rebound'

Wall Street Journal: 'Crisis Deals New Blow to Japan: Country's Top Bank in Capital Shortfall; Stocks at '82 Levels'

New York: 'Stimulus in Pinstripes: Why the Yankees will renounce their smart, sustainable team-building strategy and start spending like drunken lunatics again.'

Wall Street Journal: 'Post-Enron Crackdown Comes Up Woefully Short'
". . . Today's financial crisis has shown what a real debacle looks like. And it has made clear that executives' duties to public companies have, if anything, been loosened, not reinforced. What is worse, the post-Enron crackdown appears not only to have failed to stop flagrant corporate risk-taking, but to have lulled Washington to sleep."

Reuters: 'Skinheads held over plot to kill Obama'

Slate: 'Countdown to the Obama Rapture: Watch as the press corps battles its performance anxiety!' (Jack Shafer)
". . . if Obama wins, these scribes know that they'll be facing the toughest assignment of their careers. They've all oversubscribed to the notion that Obama's candidacy is momentous, without parallel, and earth-shattering, so they can't file garden-variety pieces about the 'winds of change' blowing through Washington."

N.Y. Post: 'PATERSON WOULD BEAT RUDY: POLL'

N.Y. Jewish Week: 'New Tactics By Settlers Worrying Authorities'

Slate: 'How Bad Are Electronic Voting Machines?'

McClatchy: 'McCain pushed regulators for land swap, despite pledge'

N.Y. Times: 'The Drug Czar’s Report Card: F'

Slate: 'Middle-Aged Feminists Longing for Their Father's Money'

N.Y. Times: 'Rice Visits Mexico for a Meeting About Its Drug War'

Slate: 'Registering Doubt: If we can nationalize banks, why not our election process?'

Dawn (Pakistan): 'Barbaric killing of teenager unfolds'
". . . was first thrown before hungry dogs and when she was mauled by them and in the jaws of death, she was riddled with bullets."

N.Y. Daily News: 'Ma charged in vicious mop-handle slay of 11-year-old daughter'

L.A. Times: 'McCain was frank, garrulous and accessible -- and then he wasn't'

Guardian (U.K.): 'The cost of the crash: $2,800,000,000,000'

N.Y. Post: 'DA EYES COPS IN SODOMY'

Human Rights Watch: 'Confessions of a former Guantanamo prosecutor'

McClatchy: 'As clock ticks, U.S. letting thousands of Iraqi prisoners go'

N.Y. Times: 'Can I Get an Arrgh?'

BuzzFlash: 'Memo to Palin: Fruit Fly Researchers Receive Nobel Prize for Medicine for Advancing the Understanding of Birth Defects in Humans'

Slate: 'Texts You Can Believe In: Forget robo-calls -- Obama's text messages are this campaign's secret weapon'

McClatchy: 'Slowing British economy could send immigrants home'

Guardian (U.K.): 'BP smashes forecasts as profits soar 148 percent'
"Oil giant BP has reaped the benefits of this summer's record oil prices, smashing all forecasts with a 148 percent rise in third-quarter profits. The figures are likely to spark fresh protests from motorists and businesses that have been hit hard by higher petrol prices."

RadioAustralia: 'China tries to kick start housing sector'

BBC: 'Arctic ice thickness "plummets" '

Wall Street Journal: 'Some Newspapers Shed Unprofitable Readers'

Wall Street Journal: 'Another Favorite Trade Bites the Dust'

N.Y. Times: 'Fractures in Iraq City as Kurds and Baghdad Vie'

Scotsman: 'Transcript of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's phone calls to Andrew Sachs'

N.Y. Post: 'EASY TICKET TO RIDE THE GRAVY TRAIN'

Bloomberg: 'Volkswagen Overtakes Exxon as Most Valuable Company'

N.Y. Post: 'FUNDS' OCTOBER SURPRISE: HEDGES FACING WORST MONTHLY LOSSES IN DECADE'

U.S. Dams Iraq While Damning Iowa

Posted by Harkavy at 8:56 AM, June 18, 2008

Desperately needed funds for new levees in U.S. Midwest have been diverted to flood control in Iraq.

How many more floods of Biblical proportions will it take for Americans to realize what the government is not doing?

The Bush regime and Congress have refused to spend money on upgrading levees in the U.S. while spending hundreds of millions of dollars on levees and dams in Iraq.

The first disaster was Hurricane Katrina. Now we have the Iowa floods, which will have even more impact worldwide because of their impact on food prices.

I thought Bush was a big Bible reader. So why is he ignoring prophecy about floods? The AP's Jim Salter reported on May 12 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn't even know how many levees there were in the country, let alone the sad shape of them. Salter wrote:

Asked and answered when it comes to Iraq. The Bush regime diverted flood-control money from New Orleans to try to win the propaganda war in Iraq. (Go to this 2007 Bush Beat item for facts and links.)

Same situation in the Midwest. While the waters were still ominously rising last month, the AP's Salter wrote:

$200 million would pay off your mortgage, but it's really not that much money in the big picture. As I wrote in September 2005:

While the corpses of elderly people were floating and bloating in New Orleans in September '05, the Defense Department was also bragging on its "Defend America" website about spending money on Mosul Dam, the largest in Iraq, to keep floodwaters from potentially — potentially — flooding Baghdad:

Not that the Mosul Dam project worked out well, mind you. Two years after the DOD crowed about its work on the dam, Stuart Bowen, the courageous special inspector general in the Iraq Debacle, pointed to the facts, as NPR noted in October 2007:

For more, read this Washington Post story, which says in part:

Rather that a corrupt flood-control project be undertaken in this country instead of Iraq. At least it would have partially helped defend America.
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Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Bush

Posted by Harkavy at 2:20 PM, June 3, 2008

Not just for kids: a parody of the self-parody administration

Fight off your recession and read this requiem for a lightweight: Goodnight Bush, a parody to end all self-parody presidencies.

It's almost time to say "good night" to George W. Bush, and Erich Origen and Gan Golan pronounce the laugh rites over the administration.

Bush's favorite kiddie book in times of crisis may be The Pet Goat, but mine is now Origen and Golan's Goodnight Bush, which sends the regime up to the moon in the same way that Ralph Kramden was always threatening to do to wife Alice.

This is a very funny book, even if it may induce nightmares instead of sweet dreams. Cute illustrations abound: a refinery plume, piggy war profiteers, a spilt glass of water with Katrina victims floating in it.

The text is warm and fuzzy — not as fuzzy as Bush's brain but warmer than Cheney's heart:

See Dick run. See Dick run away. See Dick run away finally.

And see the book's website here.

Numb and Numbers: Bush's Vacation Days equal the Number of E-mails Shredded

Posted by Harkavy at 8:49 AM, January 18, 2008

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Bush isn't checking his e-mails. Or maybe he is.

While George W. Bush has spent a record amount of time vacationing at his ranch, he hasn't been checking his e-mail. Or maybe his stooges did check it — in the sense of a hockey player checking an opponent by slamming him into the boards and destroying him — and thus prevented that flood of messages from ever seeing the light of day.

The numbers game for America's numbest president are eerie: A report released by watchdog congressman Henry Waxman — judging by his performance, Waxman works 24/7 — reveals that 473 days of White House e-mail are missing. At the same time, Bush is on pace to have spent 499 days on vacation during his two terms. Most of it has been spent hunkering down in his Crawford, Texas, bunker.

The Washington Post's Dan Eggen and Elizabeth Williamson report this morning:

Now go back to Julie Mason's story in the August 9, 2007, Houston Post:

Mason's smart story notes Bush's record-breaking non-performance:

Do the math: Bush had taken 418 days of vacation in his first 6.7 years in office. That works out to 62.4 vacation days a year — a little more than 12 work weeks, which is probably slightly more vacation time than you get. On the other hand, think how much more damage Bush could have done if he hadn't taken so much vacation.

Anyway, multiply 62.4 days a year by eight and you get 499 total days of vacation.

Compare that with the 473 days of e-mail missing. All Bush's handlers have to do to keep pace is destroy 26 more days of e-mails. They can probably handle that.

Creep Show: Rumsfeld Enters House of Waxman

Posted by Harkavy at 10:58 AM, August 1, 2007

Former SecDef goes to Capitol Hill to finally answer for Tillman coverup — or at least face some unfriendly fire. Watch it live.

Three years after the Pentagon covered up the circumstances of soldier Pat Tillman's actual death by fratricide in Afghanistan so it could falsely portray it as a death by hostile fire, thus taking the country's mind off Abu Ghraib, Don Rumsfeld finally has to answer questions about it.

The hearing's going on right now, thanks to dogged California congressman Henry Waxman — and only because of the 2006 midterm elections that wrestled control of the House from the GOP.

Why C-SPAN isn't televising it on its main channel is beyond me, but you can catch it right now on Waxman's excellent site, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, of which he is now chairman. For background, read Waxman's opening statement and Waxman's hearing this past April on the Tillman coverup.

As the ranking minority member during the first six years of the Bush-Cheney regime, Waxman lobbed shell after shell at the disgraceful conduct before and during the war on Terra — and on many other issues as well. Now Waxman has the power to put Rumsfeld in his sights.

Just a few minutes ago, Rumsfeld began his opening statement by saying, "I want to extend my deepest sympathies to the Tillman family."

Well, he said the same thing to them in the spring of 2004. But what he forgot to tell them at that time — although he knew it — was that Tillman was actually killed by his fellow soldiers in a terrible screwup. The Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal covered up the real circumstances, even from Tillman's family, so that it could score p.r. points. The cabal trotted out Bush to make the point that the dastardly enemy killed Tillman and that his was a noble sacrifice.

Steve Coll of the Washington Post (now at the New Yorker) first uncovered this sordid public-relations maneuver, which has enraged Tillman's family. Check out Coll's brilliant work from December 2004.

The current Pentagon, under Bob Gates, has continued to cover up the actions of top officials. Only a few days ago, Richard Sisk of the New York Daily News wrote:

Oh, now former Joint Chiefs chair Richard "Quag" Myers is talking about the "heartbreak" suffered by the Tillman family. But Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is saying to Myers, "Why didn't you tell the Tillman family the truth?" All they're doing right now is trying to get them to apologize. Maybe it'll get better. Check it out.

Vitter Screws One Person and It's News?

Posted by Harkavy at 9:24 AM, July 12, 2007

How about the entire city of New Orleans? Look at the Corps of the matter.

So Senator Dave Vitter screwed one person in New Orleans and won a million headlines. No one noticed when he, his fellow war supporters in Congress, and the White House repeatedly screwed the city's entire (former) population before and after Hurricane Katrina hit.

In early September 2005, Vitter entered the official White House photo album by pointing out flood damage in Louisiana to President George W. Bush. But as I pointed out at the time, Vitter was gesturing in the direction of Iraq, which was soaking up funds diverted before Katrina:

In June 2005, the Corps budget for New Orleans was slashed by $71.2 million, the heaviest cut the flood-prone city had ever experienced.

Two months later, Katrina hit, and water flooded into New Orleans. The Bush regime, with the support of Vitter, who was on the House Appropriations Committee before he became a senator in 2005 and was more ardent about big missiles than big levees, had been blowing its load of money on flood protection in Iraq. The Corps even established a "Gulf Region," but it was the Persian Gulf, not the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bush regime poured billions into building hospitals and health clinics in Iraq while letting New Orleans hospitals die.

What a drag. And that's what Rudy Giuliani's aides are thinking. As Time pointed out July 10, Vitter is the Southern campaign director for Giuliani's presidential bid. An outspoken social conservative closely tied to the Family Research Council, Bible-thumper James Dobson's D.C. arm, Vitter combined with Giuliani to make "strange bedfellows," as Gambit Weekly's Jeremy Alford noted this past April.

Until Vitter was exposed as a brothel client, he had been obsessed — except when it came to New Orleans — with preventing the release of precious bodily fluids.

Pushing hard for abstinence education, Vitter has been quite the missionary. In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee leaders just three weeks ago, Vitter pleaded for the re-authorization of $50 million to spread abstinence education to the nation's youth. Vitter wrote:

No doubt a person will pay a higher price for sexual conduct without such negotiations.

Vitter's letter added:

Or at least the rest of his term as a senator.

He co-wrote the letter with Kentucky senator Jim Bunning, the former Detroit Tigers pitcher. Quite a battery of pitcher and catcher.

Speaking of which, the moralists should say an extra prayer of thanks that Vitter was involved with the D.C. Madam instead of being just another AC/DC mister like so many other rigid right-wingers. Unlike evangelist Ted Haggard, Vitter is being criticized for screwing a woman.

To top it all, Vitter was escorted into Congress by someone else's peckerdillo, and Hustler's Larry Flynt was the key figure in that episode as well as in outing Vitter's hypocrisy. As Think Progress noted July 10:

Vitter wants to clean up such messes? Pass the Kleenex.

More Blues in New Orleans

Posted by Harkavy at 8:26 AM, July 10, 2007

Poor New Orleans, poor Iraq vets. Trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina, the city is trying to build a medical complex downtown that includes the fabled Charity Hospital and a VA hospital, but Congress took a step backwards yesterday on the plan.

And wouldn't you know — the only House member standing up for the city during a hearing yesterday in D.C. was a guy with no cred, William Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat indicted on corruption charges.

The city wants a rebuilt hospital complex to help revitalize its downtown. Care of New Orleans' people is also a consideration. But others want the hospital complex, which would include a VA hospital that was destroyed during Katrina, moved to the suburbs.

This is more than the continuous whitening strikes raining down on New Orleans. Some in Congress want the VA hospital put in Pensacola, Florida. Congressman Bill Miller from that area argues that New Orleans is too prone to flooding. He doesn't mention that Pensacola was ravaged by two hurricanes in 2004.

Some representatives of veterans have mixed feelings about putting a new VA hospital in downtown New Orleans. But one is desperately needed somewhere. As Kate Moran reports this morning on the excellent Times-Picayune site, nola.com:

We can't afford much else than the war in Iraq, thanks to our unjustified invasion four long years ago.

A far more serious case of corruption than the William Jefferson case is that the U.S. Corps of Engineers was busy building dams, levees, hospitals, and health clinics in Iraq when Katrina ravaged New Orleans in the summer of 2005.

The city became a charity case, and its Charity Hospital, founded 250 years ago, was the exemplar, a huge hospital already crumbling when Katrina hit. Read Clayton James Cubitt's elegy from October 2005:

And a horror house during Katrina: Hundreds of patients, along with doctors and staff, were trapped by Katrina's floodwaters for nearly a week with no food, power, or water. Patients who died were moved into stairwells. Other hospitals were evacuated before rescuers focused on Charity.

Bush Beat reader Jeffrey Schwartz up at MIT, who tipped me off to this latest indignity to New Orleans, neatly sums up the political realities of the current situation:

Celebrating a Cancer

Posted by Harkavy at 8:16 AM, July 5, 2007

Blow up the candles. Blow them up all over the world. George W. Bush's 61st birthday is tomorrow, July 6. Things are so bad that even the Presidential Prayer Team, focusing on "Today's Immediate Concerns," is praying as we speak that our troops come home:

Naturally, the prayer team's birthday wishes for Bush take precedence over a bunch of Okies and Kansans, not to mention people from his adopted home state. But for Bush — remember his slow reaction to the tsunami and his performance before and after Hurricane Katrina — natural disasters aren't his focus.

Manmade disasters are his thing. So buy at least 3,583 candles.

Yes, Bush's birth date, among other things, makes him a Cancer with a capital "C." As for our de facto president, Dick Cheney, you'll have to wait six months to celebrate his next birthday: He turns 67 on January 30, 2008.

It should have already dawned on you that we really are living in the age of Aquarius.

New Orleans v. Iraq

Posted by Harkavy at 8:29 AM, June 22, 2007

Guess where the U.S. is frantically building health clinics and flood-control structures.

As a dozen Americans were killed in the past two days in Baghdad, the U.S. military "surge" south and north — in Diyala (the province between Baghdad and Iran) — gets more intense. The Washington Post reports this morning:

What about the other surge, the one that swamped New Orleans in 2005 and left an already struggling city with poor health care and even feebler flood protection?

Before Hurricane Katrina hit, in case you've forgotten, the Bush regime diverted Corps of Engineers work to Iraq, instead of finishing levees in New Orleans.

Now the Corps is reporting that current levees won't protect the city from another big flood. But the Corps is busy building new health clinics and flood-control structures in Iraq.

Some of the new health clinics are, wouldn't you know, in Diyala province, where we're fighting rebels and causing even more destruction.

The Corps has been spreading the word. In a breathless April 20 press release, complete with color photography and titled "Electricity, Medical, Water Projects Enrich Diyala Province," flack LuAnne Fantasia (you can't make it up) wrote about the 170 infrastructure projects in Diyala. I'd say the Corps doesn't have 170 infrastructure projects in New Orleans.

Just as well that we're building new health clinics in Iraq, because we've already bombed hospitals.

At least in New Orleans, our government didn't bomb hospitals but — like massive old Charity — allowed them to die a slow death from neglect.

Louisiana: Struck by Whitening

Posted by Harkavy at 9:51 AM, May 15, 2007

A new report concludes that Hurricane Katrina hit blacks harder than whites.

Thanks to the Kaiser Family Foundation for pointing out the obvious. That's usually my job.

I'm not faulting the foundation or its report, Giving Voice to the People of New Orleans: The Kaiser Post-Katrina Baseline Survey. The Washington Post, which has helped sponsor other Kaiser surveys, ran a story about the report on May 10.

But many people have been saying this from the git-go. In October 2005, I noted in "Whitening Strikes New Orleans" that the storm's devastation was creating a black diaspora that was being undercovered by most of the nation's press. And at the same time as Katrina, the U.S. was pouring money into Iraq's infrastructure while ignoring Louisiana's.

Commentators like Anthony Asadullah Samad were talking about the storm back then in context of the racial history of Louisiana and the mindset of right-wing ideologues past and present. Samad excoriated "the far right" for "calling the poor and disenfranchised responsible for their own fates."

The Kaiser report confirms the disproportionate damage suffered by Louisiana black people. Here's an excerpt from the new report's executive summary:

The new Louisiana is destined to be whiter. And the black people who do remain will be even poorer than they were before. I guess that means more blues sung by fewer people.

Morning Report 9/28/05
Barney Fife on Capitol Hill

Posted by Harkavy at 7:51 AM, September 28, 2005

The House Select Committee on Hurricane Katrina dumped a whole bucket of tar on toxic clown Mike Brown yesterday, but the entertaining performance was still a whitewash.

Brown is an easy punching bag to hit — hell, he's a speed bag.

The guy was demoted on the spot and sent back to D.C., and then, under the kind of pressure that turns coal into diamonds, he "resigned." But the schmuck is still on the federal payroll as a "consultant" to FEMA, getting $148,000 to help the agency "review" its response to Katrina, as he put it.

The panel members excoriated the guy, who was both offensive and defensive in return. Brown swears he tried to nip that storm in the bud. Uh-huh.

Look at the transcript of the six-hour session, and you'll see how various House Republicans did themselves proud for next year's election campaign by beating this dead horse judge.

But the sound bites and fury signified nothing. The Bush regime's penchant for decentralizing and privatizing vital federal functions is another matter. That's been a disaster waiting to happen. And then the disaster happened.

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes this morning:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) ordered a Democratic boycott of the hearing, calling it a "sham" and a "photo opportunity." But, as defrocked FEMA director Michael D. Brown can attest, Pelosi's concerns about a whitewash proved unjustified.

Yes, Brown came across as smugly sanctimonious — "I pray for these people every night" — and defiantly ignorant — asked for figures, he reckoned that FEMA spent "a boatload of money."

Sure, everybody at the hearing slathered tar on Brown. And Milbank poked fun at Bush's absurd September 2 endorsement of his former campaign hack by saying the committee "did a heck of a job on Brownie."

But Pelosi was right: A full hearing would delve deeper into the dismantling of FEMA that has gone on since Bush appointed his campaign manager Joe Allbaugh to head the agency in 2001. Now, of course, Allbaugh is a consultant for Halliburton and others and, as I noted more than a year ago, he runs a consulting company called Diligence.

You can take Mardi Gras hats worn by Louisiana National Guard soldiers in Iraq and stick them on Brown and George W. Bush, but when it comes down to it, you just can't make this shit up. But sometimes you accidentally do: Along with many others, I've incorrectly described Brown and Allbaugh as college roommates. They weren't. They are, however, longtime pals, and Brown was the first person Allbaugh hired at FEMA.

Back to current bidness: As I wrote more than a week ago, Jon Elliston covered the topic of FEMA's dismantling in a story last year, during the election campaign. In "Disaster in the Making," Elliston observed that the Bush regime was religiously responding to Hurricane Charley and other storms that were battering Florida and added:

FEMA's relatively quick response to the hurricanes has thus far won mostly high marks from Florida officials, who remember well a time when the disaster agency seemed the last party to show up after catastrophes. In addition, President Bush has paid multiple visits to assure victims they will get whatever help is needed, and he promptly secured more than $2 billion from Congress to fund Florida's recovery. & As storms continue to batter the Panhandle, no one would call Florida lucky. But with elections just around the corner, the hurricanes could scarcely have hit at a better time or place for obtaining federal disaster assistance.

"They're doing a good job," one former FEMA executive says of the Bush administration's response efforts. "And the reason why they're doing that job is because it's so close to the election, and they can't fuck it up, otherwise they lose Florida — and if they lose Florida, they might lose the election."

Such political considerations may indeed make this round of recoveries go better than most. But long before this hurricane season, some emergency managers inside and outside of government started sounding an alarm that still rings loudly. Bush administration policy changes and budget cuts, they say, are sapping FEMA's long-term ability to cushion the blow of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, wildfires and other natural disasters.

Among the casualties have been FEMA's "mitigation" programs, measures designed to minimize damage before storms happen. Elliston noted last October that FEMA canceled and cut back many such programs, including in you-know-where:

In North Carolina, a state regularly damaged by hurricanes and floods, FEMA recently refused the state's request to buy backup generators for emergency support facilities. And the budget cuts have halved the funding for a mitigation program that saved an estimated $8.8 million in recovery costs in three eastern N.C. communities alone after 1999's Hurricane Floyd. In Louisiana, another state vulnerable to hurricanes, requests for flood mitigation funds were rejected by FEMA this summer [2004].

Elliston connected all the dots and concluded:

Consequently, the residents of these and other disaster-prone states will find the government less able to help them when help is needed most, and both states and the federal government will be forced to shoulder more costs after disasters strike.

In addition, the White House has pushed for privatization of essential government services, including disaster management, and merged FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security, where natural disaster programs are often sidelined by counter-terrorism programs. Along the way, morale at FEMA has plummeted, and many of the agency's most experienced personnel have left for work in other agencies or private corporations.

In June, Pleasant Mann, a 16-year FEMA veteran who heads the agency's government employee union, wrote members of Congress to warn of the agency's decay.

"Over the past three-and-one-half years, FEMA has gone from being a model agency to being one where funds are being misspent, employee morale has fallen, and our nation's emergency management capability is being eroded," he wrote. "Our professional staff are being systematically replaced by politically connected novices and contractors."

So while they're far from where hurricanes hit hardest, FEMA's Washington-based disaster managers find themselves in the middle of a perfect storm of their own.

Elliston's story was prescient, but then so were the great reporting jobs done by others, including the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida in 2004 and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans (way back in 2002, as colleague Syd Schanberg points out.)

All those stories exposed the danger that lurked from the Bush regime's wrongheaded policies and behavior.

You don't have to be Jewish to love levees. But I guess the Pentagon wanted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to focus on Iraq, instead of shoring up the homeland.

Morning Report 9/21/05
Katrina's Window Into Slavery's Past — and Present

Posted by Harkavy at 8:51 AM, September 21, 2005

In addition to destroying lives and property, Hurricane Katrina may accomplish something worthwhile: washing away the illusion that the Civil War resolved the injustice of slavery in the United States.

Many people, including those living in Louisiana, are under no such illusions, of course. But Katrina's swirling rage exposed to the world the sight of thousands of black people trapped by a storm because they were trapped anyway by the vestiges of a slave-based economy.

What will white America do with this new information? Will the new New Orleans be rebuilt on a different economic foundation from the one that, even after slavery was supposedly abolished, depended upon ghettoized blacks doing the scut work that made a charming city run but which left themselves with little prospect of escape? Did the hurricane blow away those cobwebs that keep Americans from seeing that our slavery past still has to be dealt with? Don't hold your breath, because race and class issues impede equal opportunity just about everywhere else in this country.

But thanks to exquisite (and purely accidental) timing, a new book on Louisiana's post-slavery history was scheduled for publication next month by Harvard University Press. Now, to capitalize on Katrina, it has been rushed into circulation.

That might be academic, because the book itself is. Rebecca J. Scott's Degrees of Freedom is a fascinating and well-written piece of comparative history, but it's not exactly written for a mass audience. Its subtitle, however, says that it should be: "Louisiana and Cuba After Slavery." Scott (see photo) is a University of Michigan law and history professor who spent years trying to understand what happened after the Civil War — and after the Spanish-American War — to the hundreds of thousands of slaves working in the huge sugar-cane industries of Louisiana and Cuba.

Those who are rebuilding New Orleans would do well to capitalize on what's inside Scott's suddenly extremely timely book. With the Bush regime in power, that's unlikely to happen.

But here's a question posed and analyzed by Scott: After slavery, how did the African Americans fare, compared with the African Cubans? I'll be more simplistic than Scott: Since slavery officially ended, the African Americans have been treated worse, and this was apparent long before Fidel Castro was even born. Here's what Scott says:

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Louisiana and Cuba's sharply contrasting patterns of public life helped to lock inequality into Louisiana's world of cane, while opening up Cuba's.

In Cuba, though political corruption was common and women were still denied the vote, virtually all families could have a political identity, and the votes of men of color were avidly sought.

Even those born into poor rural families of color in Santa Clara province, for example, could grow up thinking of themselves as valued members of the Liberal Party.

In Louisiana, by contrast, politics had been brought within tight bounds, one-party rule reinforced by systematic class and racial disenfranchisement.

Not that racism was dead in Cuba. But Scott writes:

In Cuba, however, private racism of the hierarchical and cultural type coexisted with public declarations of equality; in Louisiana, after forty years of struggle, white-supremacist ideology … had achieved dominance in the political and economic spheres.

Scott's not just expressing her opinion here. As she adds, in discussing new Jim Crow laws banning blacks from riding in the same trolleys and train cars:

In his inaugural address of 1904, Louisiana governor Newton Blanchard made the core of that ideology quite clear. Although his colleagues eight years earlier had claimed to support Louisiana's Separate Car Act on the grounds of custom and convenience, Governor Blanchard could now acknowledge that their real goal had been to deny to Louisiana's citizens of color the very essence of public dignity: "No approach towards social equality or social recognition will ever be tolerated in Louisiana. Separate schools, separate churches, separate cars, separate places of entertainment will be enforced. Racial distinction and integrity must be preserved."

This is 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

It was in this milieu, as Scott writes, that a black man in Louisiana named Pierre Carmouche got on his horse in 1898 and persuaded other black men to join him in what he saw as the struggle for freedom in Cuba. Carmouche, a blacksmith, had written the U.S. secretary of war to offer the services of "colored Americans, on short notice, in the defence of our country, at home or abroad."

His offer was accepted and he recruited men to go with him, and they fought to "liberate" Cuba. Scott writes:

Carmouche hoped to prove his community's patriotism and valor to a broad North American public in the face of crushing defeats for equal rights at home in Louisiana.

They did a great job in Cuba. But then they returned to Louisiana, where, Scott writes, Carmouche's bid to be respected simply as an American citizen, let alone "an officer and a gentleman," was of course rejected out of hand:

Carmouche's goal of civil rights and respect was thwarted at every turn. Carmouche himself left Louisiana in despair and ended his days working as a janitor in Detroit, Michigan.

Emancipation, my ass. For one thing, black people in the South were officially kept from voting for more than a century after Lincoln "freed" them.

It wasn't until 1964, 101 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, that the federal government forced places like Louisiana to let the masses of black citizens vote.

Then, as now, many white Americans resisted racial equality. That was the same year, in fact, when William Rehnquist went to polling places in south Phoenix and intimidated blacks and Latinos to keep them from voting.

And this guy later became Chief Justice of the United States.

Does that indicate that we still have work to do in repairing the damage caused not only by Hurricane Katrina but also by our slavery past? Exactly how many years ago was slavery really "abolished"?

Along with the charm of New Orleans, what else will be restored? You tell me.

Morning Report 9/13/05
Lifeless Body Removed from FEMA HQ

Posted by Harkavy at 11:50 AM, September 13, 2005

The Bush regime has apparently knocked us senseless. Most of the country ignored a highly publicized scandal last year in Florida that should have cost Mike Brown his FEMA job before Hurricane Katrina hit.

Now, as the bloated corpses of more than 40 elderly people were finally being taken out of a New Orleans hospital that had been abandoned by authorities during the hapless initial federal response to the disaster, Brown has finally resigned.

Brown should have been evacuated from FEMA headquarters long before now. And it's not as though we didn't know what occurred after Hurricane Frances hit South Florida during last year's Labor Day weekend.

The Sun-Sentinel wound up doing a major exposé, "Cashing In on Disaster," revealing that FEMA needlessly poured money into the key battleground state during the presidential campaign. There were calls from major Florida newspapers months ago for Brown's immediate resignation.

But judging from some of Brown's speeches, transcripts of which still adorn the FEMA website, the guy was just another one of those clean-cut, brown-haired, God-squad types — like Mike Farris (left) — whom George W. Bush loves so much. Praise the lord and pass the money out just before the election. Heck of a job, Brownie.

Last December 18, this faith-based toxic clown Brown delivered the fall commencement address at the Florida Institute of Technology, telling the students as much about God as he dared:

I've spent most of my entire life in public service. I sincerely believe that it is one of the greatest callings — the ministry is probably the highest calling.

He calls his career "public service"? He must be on crack. And speaking of religion, here's another hint from Brown's speech:

This politically correct world that we live in often prohibits a speaker from saying certain things. I am a public servant and this makes it even harder for me because I really want to encourage each of you to keep faith and hope in your hearts. Anytime you get remotely close to spirituality, someone gets nervous. I am not a minister nor do I profess to know all that there is to know about religion, but I do believe that you have to believe in some type of higher power.

President George W. Bush is a man of great faith. He doesn't wear it on his sleeve; he simply carries it in his heart. The President's decisions are guided by his faith. As all of you know, President Bush has had to make some tough decisions because of the unwarranted acts of others.

Further, I have seen firsthand how communities have overcome the effects of tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes in 2003 and 2004 to rebuild and rejoin this nation. It takes faith and a belief that you can move forward. I don't believe that you can rebuild a town without a firm focus and strong faith that it can be done.

Stirring words from this bozo. Before you start swooning, remember this clown's inaction and neglect during Hurricane Katrina, which occurred in a non-battleground state during a non-election year. And let me refer you back to the Sun-Sentinel's masterful series of stories about the election-year Hurricane Frances. Some highlights:

• "The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for new cars, dental bills and a funeral even though the Medical Examiner recorded no deaths from Frances."

• "FEMA gave $21 million in Miami-Dade, where storms were 'like a severe thunderstorm.' " The four hurricanes that pummeled the rest of Florida hardly brushed Miami-Dade County. Only Hurricane Frances was a factor there — packing the punch of a bad thunderstorm."

• "FEMA inspectors were given only cursory training and attributed damage to tornadoes — there were none recorded in the county — and in six instances listed "ice/snow" as the cause."

Understand that FEMA is usually criticized for paying too little aid after disasters. But Hurricane Frances hit during an election year, Florida was likely to be a key state, as it was in 2000, Jeb Bush is the governor there — well, you can connect the dolts yourself. The stories prompted investigations and several calls for Brown's resignation.

That's because FEMA's HQ in D.C. was intimately involved in the scandal by specifically violating a formal directive to require documentation of damage before cutting checks.

After the newspaper's revelations, Democratic congressman Robert Wexler asked Bush to oust Brown. Yeah, right, like Bush was going to listen to a Democrat complain about the college roommate of the "disaster pimp," as Slate calls Joe Allbaugh, Bush's campaign manager in 2000 and Brown's equally unqualified predecessor as FEMA director.

Wexler pointed out that FEMA's HQ crew lied about weather maps it claimed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave it and admitted only to "mistakenly" doling out $12 million because of a "computer glitch" — another lie. Wexler wrote:

Rather than taking responsibility for FEMA's mishaps and moving expeditiously to correct the problems, Under Secretary Brown has further undermined his agency's reputation by stymied investigations and inquiries into fraud allegations. FEMA's massive misallocation of recovery aid is a gross waste of taxpayer monies, which must be immediately addressed by the Bush Administration.

Florida's big newspapers called on Brown to stand up and explain things. On January 4, 2005, the St. Petersburg Times opined in "Fraud Financed by FEMA":

This is what happens when the leadership in an agency decides that responsible stewardship should take a backseat to spending taxpayers' money. FEMA director Michael Brown has some explaining to do and members of Congress should start asking questions. If Washington bureaucrats want to know why American taxpayers are sometimes grudging about trusting them to spend their money, here is a good example. Congress appropriated $8.5-billion to FEMA for hurricane relief after Florida's terrible summer. But when Americans hear that tens of millions of dollars went to areas that barely experienced a stiff breeze, they have reason to feel duped.

The plain fact was Florida was hit by four big hurricanes last year, but Frances didn't bash Dade County with hurricane force, and the millions of dollars FEMA handed out there were unjustified even by the standards of Bush's formal disaster declaration.

The scandal and Brown's vehement denials of wrongdoing were even too much for some Republicans. As The Hill reported on February 17:

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), whose district suffered landfall by three of the four hurricanes, told The Hill that he was disappointed with how Brown "vehemently defended the management of funds, as if nothing is wrong. Either Brown is wrong or the Sun-Sentinel is completely wrong, and I find [the latter] hard to believe."

While he said that calling for Brown's resignation at this point is premature, Foley said he doesn't rule it out, along with other personnel shake-ups, if waste is confirmed and findings are met with "benign neglect."

"I want to make certain someone is accountable," Foley said.

Turns out that the Sun-Sentinel was right. In May — before this year's hurricane season started — the Department of Homeland Security's own inspector general, Richard Skinner, released an audit that confirmed the validity of the paper's mammoth investigation. Remember, this audit was by the DHS itself and was highly critical of FEMA's HQ crew.

Once again, the wake was barely felt up north. The Washington Post's John Mintz wrote an excellent story on May 19 about the DHS audit, but his editors buried it on page 25. Too bad, because Mintz had it all, including the political context:

Skinner's office started investigating the matter last year after the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale published articles alleging that FEMA massively overpaid many Miami-Dade residents after Frances. The IG said one case of overpayment involved $10 million that was used to replace household items in Miami-Dade partly because of a nationwide FEMA policy requiring that the replacement cost of a large bedroom suite be paid even though only a bed is damaged.

Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the coming presidential election. They also noted that politics has had a role in disaster relief activities in various administrations.

J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America who was a top federal flood-insurance official in the 1970s and 1980s, said that in the vast majority of hurricanes other than those in Florida in 2004, complaints are rife that FEMA vastly underpays hurricane victims.

The Frances overpayments "are questionable given the timing of the election and Florida's importance" as a battleground state, said Hunter, who was Texas insurance commissioner in the 1990s under then-Gov. Ann W. Richards (D).

Wait, it gets worse. As Mintz noted:

Homeland Security sources said after the hurricanes that Brown and his allies promoted him as a successor to Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their contention that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.

FEMA spokesman Natalie Rule said yesterday that there is "no truth" to the assertion that Brown angled to be secretary by citing his hurricane record. She denied that political considerations played a role in FEMA's Florida actions.

The cleanup of this clown's reign continues. His vita are having the life scrubbed out of them — he wasn't an assistant city manager in Oklahoma, he was an assistant to the city manager, and so on.

But there's still some work left to do. Brown's other bios have been sanitized, but not the one on the White House's website. Almost exactly a year ago, on September 16, 2004, Brown was the host of the Bush regime's online "Ask the White House."

He managed to get Bush's name in there quite a bit when responding to questions.

Digression: I think the questions on "Ask the White House" are made up, but I can't prove it, and the White House won't return my e-mails. End digression.

Anyway, in answer to this supposed question during the online session, "Is the government providing funds for all the destruction in Florida?" Brown replied:

President Bush has asked Congress for the resources we need to respond to these hurricanes and has successfully got that money from Congress.

And more, apparently. Naturally, Brown's bio for "Ask the White House" is also padded. It still carries the canard that this Barney Fife was "an assistant city manager," instead of an assistant to the city manager.

This bio also lays out some of Brown's other duties for Bush that ought to make us feel a whole lot less safe right now:

Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Mr. Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks. Later, the President asked him to head the Consequence Management Working Group to identify and resolve key issues regarding the federal response plan. In August 2002, President Bush appointed him to the Transition Planning Office for the new Department of Homeland Security, serving as the transition leader for the EP&R Division. Mr. Brown currently chairs the National Citizen Corps Council, part of the President's USA Freedom Corps volunteer initiative.

I hope Brown made up that stuff too.

Tour De Farce: Bush Heads South

Posted by Harkavy at 9:12 PM, September 11, 2005

Undeterred by the fact that Trent Lott's porch is sadly still not rebuilt after suffering crippling damage from Hurricane Katrina, George W. Bush is making another visit to the Gulf Coast.

This time, the president is expected to actually set foot in New Orleans, sometime tomorrow.

Bush kicked off the start of the full slate of NFL regular-season games today by observing a moment of silence on the hapless anniversary of 9/11. The standard AP story about his activities today notes:

As he has every year since the terrorist attacks, Bush observed a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. EDT, the exact minute in 2001 when hijackers smashed the first passenger jet into the World Trade Center.

This may be the fourth anniversary of 9/11, but this is the fifth straight year that Bush has been struck dumb at 8:46 a.m. (or thereabouts) on September 11.

On the actual morning of the attacks on New York City, the president stayed frozen in his chair, reading "The Pet Goat" with a bunch of Florida kids — even after his aide Andy Card whispered to him that bad shit was happening.

The Toledo Blade, like many other mainstream news outlets, is putting this shrimp on the barbie, as well it might, after the Iraq debacle and now the non-response to Hurricane Katrina. This morning, the Blade opined in "Compassionate Conservatives?":

President Bush raised eyebrows on his first visit to the Gulf Coast when, instead of just sympathizing with the thousands of mostly poor and black storm victims, he lamented the fact that Sen. Trent Lott’s vacation home on the coast was lost, but was confident the Mississippi Republican would rebuild.

"Out of the rubble of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch," said Mr. Bush with a chuckle as he stood in an airplane hangar in Mobile, Ala.

On the same initial foray to a region of the country drowning in abandonment after the catastrophic hurricane, the President, apparently oblivious to the woefully inadequate federal emergency response, heaped praise on FEMA chief Michael Brown with a cheery "Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job."

Thankfully, Brown is back in Washington, after giving us Okies the bad name that we sometimes deserve.

Even better is that the fiesty Black Commentator has returned from its summer hiatus, and my former colleague Thulani Davis brings her graceful, understated style to bear on the hurricane's aftermath.

Jesse Jackson took the expected — but undeserved — criticism by going to New Orleans and talking about "slave ships."

For Davis, Jackson's comments captured the racial component of the misery perfectly — I thought they were just fine too. Davis knows all about Trent Lott (though not his porch) and about what Mississippi's black people have to put up with when it comes to fighting for economic rights. No wonder she focuses in "Unbearable Crime on the Mississippi" on the likely grim future for many of the Gulf Coast's black citizens as New Orleans, for example, gets rebuilt in a way that, like the initial rescue efforts, marginalized them:

There is now what is called the Katrina Diaspora. This diaspora of people without resources puts the restoration of families and community at risk, and in the case of New Orleans' black community, probably makes that impossible.

Even people who own land there are going to be in deep trouble trying to hold onto it when the real estate boondoggle gets in the courts. I'm afraid we'll be reading a lot of stupid crap about how they couldn't be found, taxes were owed, etc. as in times past throughout the South. That's why I hope Jesse gets someone to bring people like Congressman Bennie Thompson into the fold, as he is familiar with the commission that had to be set up in the Delta because people are still trying to get back land stolen in the 1930s. And the developers are probably asking for eminent domain to be declared even as I'm typing.

When Bush finally gets to kick back on Lott's new porch, maybe they can swap stories about Lott's hero, Strom Thurmond. Maybe Lott will tell the dumb Dubya that Thurmond renounced segregationism and didn't even say "nigra" very often. Thurmond's reputed remorse later in life for his racist style is a fabrication, by the way, as Slate's Timothy Noah ably pointed out back in December 2002. That was just after the Senate Majority Leader was caught being wistful:

I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.

I'm sure none of that'll be on Bush's conscious mind as he tours New Orleans tomorrow. In fact, there's likely to be absolutely nothing on this president's mind, except the prospect of more hugs from the common people.

The question is what other people are thinking. Will anyone do more than just carp at the disastrous Bush regime? There's still never been a full-fledged investigation in Congress of the regime's conduct regarding either 9/11 or Iraq. What makes anyone think there will be accountability for the Bush krewe's abysmal handling of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy?

Morning Report 9/10/05
The Bush Krewe

Posted by Harkavy at 11:48 AM, September 10, 2005

Now that we know for sure that the Bush regime has absolutely no idea what to do about New Orleans — except to profit from those po' folks — it's time to let others do the brainstorming.

Bush Beat reader Aria Smith, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology here in Manhattan who has a personal stake in the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, wrote me this morning with a damned good suggestion:

Hi. I was just thinking. We all know that there's no possible way that New Orleans will have a Mardi Gras next year. I've heard people talking about having Mardi Gras in other places, and I think the perfect place would be in the Village.

That way they could raise money for the hurricane victims. True, in February it's freezing up here so maybe they could do it before then.

I have family in New Orleans. Some have been found and some have not. But I'm just trying to think of a fun way to raise money and any way to help, since Bush doesn't seem to be doing much. I have no idea who you would talk to to get something like that started. I just thought it would be a good, and fun, idea.

Thanks for writing, Aria. That's a great idea. All we have to do is make sure we don't ask for a parade permit. The last time half a million people gathered on the streets of New York City, it was in protest of the Republican National Convention, and the organizers unfortunately went along with the city, the cops, and the federal government and got co-opted. The protesters were penned in and herded around like so many sheep. In fact, they were initially corraled right around where your school is, at Seventh Avenue and 29th. Maybe we'd have better luck if, as you suggest, we focus on having our party a little bit south of there, in the Village.

After seeing what happened last summer at the convention in New York City and this summer at the Convention Center in New Orleans, it's safe to say that the Bush krewe's idea of a disaster is civil disobedience.

The regime and its officials in New York City government were well prepared for last summer's "disorder." With the cooperation of the mainstream media, government officials managed to tar the protesters as "anarchists." A "green zone" was even set up around Madison Square Garden, which was turned into a "Republican Palace," to protect the Bush krewe.

When there's a real disaster, of course, like Hurricane Katrina, and ordinary Americans need protection, the federal government doesn't give a shit.

So, I agree. Let's have Mardi Gras right here in Greenwich Village. But don't tell the Bush krewe.

Morning Report 9/09/05
Another Bible Lesson From Bush

Posted by Harkavy at 8:27 AM, September 9, 2005

George W. Bush still hasn't dipped his toes in the hazardous waters of downtown New Orleans, but the regime's 800-pound gorilla finally took the plunge yesterday.

Actually, it was Dick Cheney, bearing 800 pounds of bottled water on his first visit to the scene. As the AP reported:

Seeking to counter attacks by Democrats, the vice president defended the political appointees who are overseeing the federal relief effort. Cheney also spoke of the need to address "mental health issues" among people in the stricken area; he offered no specifics.

We're the ones who are nuts for having re-installed this inept and uncaring crew last year. At least someone passing by Cheney during his stop in Gulfport, Mississippi, had the decency to shout out, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney."

And that was before Cheney told reporters that he thinks Bush "struck the right balance" between political appointees and career professionals to oversee the relief efforts. Go back and read what Jon Elliston wrote last year about FEMA and the Bush gang, and make up your own mind about that.

With Cheney trying to earn Brownie points, Bush lectured Americans on the Bible while proclaiming yesterday that September 16 will be a "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of Hurricane Katrina."

His staff inserted the obvious passage into the proclamation:

Across our Nation, so many selfless deeds reflect the promise of the Scripture: "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in."

Yeah, well, anyone can quote Matthew 25:35. Bush's performance over the past five years — not only in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath but including the disgraceful treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib — reminds me of Job 22:6-8:

You demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked.

You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land — an honored man, living on it.

Bush's sermonizing really gets on my last nerve. His proclamation yesterday is a pretty standard thing for presidents to do, but this one was even more full of sanctimonious God-talk than his similar proclamation after 9/11. You can't help but recall Timothy 4:2:

Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

More searing is indicated. While Bush's pal Joe Allbaugh, the former FEMA director, is down on the Gulf Coast recruiting new work from FEMA for Cheney's company Halliburton, maybe the president could click on the progressive Christian site Sojourners for a handy 12-page anti-poverty worship kit. Full of Biblical references, this is designed to help believers prepare for next week's U.N. World Summit in New York.

While Bush is at it, he could stop to note this assemblage of factoids from Sojourners:

POVERTY IS A NATIONAL CRISIS

As Hurricane Katrina has dramatically exposed the urban poverty in southern cities, it is important to remember that poverty is a national problem, and a growing one.

• 37 million — total number of people living in poverty in the U.S.

• 13 million — number of children living in poverty

• 1.1 million — number of people who fell below the poverty threshold between 2003 and 2004

• 4 — number of consecutive years in which the poverty rate has risen in America

Bush Regime Remains in Persistent Vegetative State

Posted by Harkavy at 9:39 PM, September 8, 2005

Sorry we complained that the federal government was taking its own sweet time responding to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Remember when Congress rushed to interfere with poor brain-dead Terri Schiavo? When it comes to the alive and kicking black people of New Orleans, it's moving quite a bit more slowly.

But then again, when Congress does act, look what happens.

A House bill hurriedly OK'd, rubber-stamped by the Senate and rushed today to the desk of George W. Bush includes a provision that will make any previous looting in New Orleans seem downright poignant. The watchdog group POGO notes that the bill "encourages federal agencies to waive taxpayer protections on Katrina-related contracting."

This provision, which the watchdog group POGO calls "Katrina Relief Bill: Contractors at the Pig Trough," is absolutely unnecessary, chimes in bulldog congressman Henry Waxman. He notes that other parts of the bill allow equally speedy ways of getting money to the problems, but without the potential for fraud, abuse, graft and so on. Waxman immediately fired off a letter of complaint to Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (not that one, but the one who's leading this telethon-like effort for the GOP's bidness pals).

Waxman's letter explains it like this:

I am writing about my very serious concerns with a provision in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill for Hurricane Katrina. A substantive provision was inserted in the bill, at the request of the Administration, which would raise the "micro-purchase" threshold from $15,000 to $250,000 for purchases relating to relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Raising this threshold would mean that any federal employee with a government-issued credit card could buy up to a $250,000 in goods or services in a single purchase. There would be no limit to the number of such purchases. This is an unwise provision that could lead to contract abuse and extensive waste, fraud, and abuse.

The use of government credit cards has a track record, and it is not a good one. In the decade since these credit cards were first introduced, GAO and agency Inspectors General have documented millions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse.

Oh, Henry! Can't be that bad, can it? Yes, it can be. While stressing that the vast majority of federal employees are honest, he plucks only three of many examples of abuse enumerated by the Government Accountability Office in past reports:

• A Navy cardholder who made $250,000 in unauthorized purchases in less than a year, including buying a dog. (GAO report)

• A Navy cardholder who spent $150,000 for automotive equipment, home building, and general home supplies, some of which the cardholder later resold for cash. (same report as above)

• A Department of Education cardholder who made fraudulent purchases from pornographic websites, including one named SlaveLaborProductions.com. (GAO report)

POGO's executive director, Danielle Brian, sums up the onerous provision this way:

The insertion of the provision is the result of callous contractors and their allies in Congress taking advantage of the country’s desperate desire to help the survivors of Katrina. This provision opens up the possibility for much more waste, fraud and abuse and offers no improvement in the government’s ability to quickly assist the people who need it.

Speaking of contractors and their allies, it's good to see ol' Joe Allbaugh hard at work on another national crisis, as I previously noted. The ex-FEMA chief (Mike Brown was his college roomie) is back to doing campaigning. But instead of running Bush's campaign, as he did in 2000, he's running interference for Halliburton and other companies down on the ravaged Gulf Coast. There's a ton of stuff now out there on Allbaugh's current lobbying. One of the best is Thomas B. Edsall's account in today's Washington Post. Edsall lets Allbaugh's quotes speak loud and clear about this Bush political hack's sense of community and civic service:

Allbaugh, now head of his own Washington lobbying and consulting firm, was in Baton Rouge, La., helping his clients get business from perhaps the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.

Allbaugh said he was there "just trying to lend my shoulder to the wheel, trying to coordinate some private-sector support that the government always asks for." In the case of one client, UltraStrip Systems Inc., a Florida company, Allbaugh said he persuaded "them down here" to present the case for a water filtration system.

"I'll tell them, 'Here are the list of entities [that might buy the system] that are in town, here is where they are — go to it.' "

Allbaugh said he advises clients on how to present their product or service to government agencies. "I tell them how to best craft their pitch, to craft their technical expertise so everybody knows exactly what they do."

Edsall does a fine job, but a must-read on the subject of Allbaugh, Brown, and FEMA is Jon Elliston's excellent "Disaster in the Making," published in the fall of 2004 in numerous alternative papers around the country and starkly relevant right now. This long but fine piece of recent history gave a prescient look at how Allbaugh worked hard to privatize as much of FEMA's duties as he could.

As Elliston wrote:

At FEMA, President Bush appointed a close aide, Joe Allbaugh, to be the agency's new director. Allbaugh had served as then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff in Texas and as manager of his 2000 presidential campaign. Along with Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, Allbaugh was known as one part of Bush's "iron triangle" of professional handlers.

Some FEMA veterans complained that Allbaugh had little experience in managing disasters, and the new administration's early initiatives did little to settle their concerns. The White House quickly launched a government-wide effort to privatize public services, including key elements of disaster management. Bush's first budget director, Mitch Daniels, spelled out the philosophy in remarks at an April 2001 conference: "The general idea —that the business of government is not to provide services, but to make sure that they are provided — seems self-evident to me," he said.

That approach comes in handy now that Allbaugh is putting his "shoulder to the wheel" to help companies profit from doing work that government used to do.

This hiring of consultants and private firms for everything is a tremendous waste, of course. Look at the millions of dollars in documented overcharges by Halliburton and its subcontractors during the Iraq debacle. It was only a few days ago that the Corps of Engineers demoted its top civilian contracting official, Bunny Greenhouse, for blowing the whistle on Halliburton's sweet deals.

Our pasha in Iraq, Jerry Bremer, was possessed of the same mania for privatizing, and billions of dollars slated for work there remain unaccounted for — that's the continuing and still not investigated oil-for-slush scandal, in case you've forgotten amid the self-righteous hubbub raised by the GOP concerning the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal.

When it comes to more-or-less natural disasters like Katrina, the same problems with consultants and private firms like Halliburton running wild in Iraq hold true here in the homeland. As Elliston wrote a year ago:

William Waugh, a disaster expert at Georgia State University who has written training programs for FEMA, warns that the rise of a "consultant culture" has not served emergency programs well. "It's part of a widespread problem of government contracting out capabilities," he says. "Pretty soon governments can't do things because they've given up those capabilities to the private sector. And private corporations don't necessarily maintain those capabilities."

But now the GOP-controlled Congress wants to loosen the restrictions on hiring private firms to work on the Katrina cleanup.

Who cares whether the problems are solved? Corporations and ironists are sure to get rich on Katrina.

A Long-Simmering Stew

Posted by Harkavy at 11:21 AM, September 8, 2005

Why even read the current stories about the backed-up toilet bowl that is New Orleans? As a colleague, well-read webwright Jeff Weston, points out, PBS reviewed this ghastly gumbo three years ago. And nothing has changed since then, thanks to the government, which, as the Washington Post points out this morning, did little but dump more pork into the city.

In "The City in a Bowl," first aired on the September 20, 2002, edition of NOW with Bill Moyers, reporter Daniel Zwerdling didn't have to do much coaxing to get various officials in and around New Orleans to imagine the perfect storm. Walter Maestri, whose name has previously popped up in Bush Beat, told him what the city would look like after a massive hurricane — even if the levees all held, because the water would be trapped inside:

It's going to look like a massive shipwreck. There's going to be — there's going to be, you know — everything that the water has carried in is going to be there. Alligators, moccasins, you know every kind of rodent that you could think of.

All of your sewage treatment plants are under water. And of course the material is flowing free in the community. Disease becomes a distinct possibility now. The petrochemicals that are produced all up and down the Mississippi River — much of that has floated into this bowl. I mean this has become, you know, the biggest toxic waste dump in the world now. Is the city of New Orleans because of what has happened.

We already know how the Bush regime allowed people — mostly poor and mostly black — to simmer in this stew. What could have been to prevent it? Probably a lot, but it wouldn't have necessarily saved the mostly black service workers who kept New Orleans functioning.

The best solution posed by anyone in Zwerdling's bleak report was LSU water expert Joe Suhayda's idea of building a huge wall around the historic heart of the city, so that "at least the core of New Orleans might survive."

That's one future envisioned by Suhayda. For more on what he's said about New Orleans, go to architect/web entrepreneur David Galbraith's site. Or to "The Big Easy on the Brink," by Time's Adam Cohen.

On PBS in 2002, Suhayda envisioned a wall three stories' high and maybe 12 miles around New Orleans. That's just the kind of wall that Ariel Sharon is frantically building over in Israel.

Finally, a worthwhile use for Sharon's wall.

Morning Report 9/8/05
'Noxious Gumbo'

Posted by Harkavy at 12:37 AM, September 8, 2005

Late last night, a BBC World reporter described the toxic soup bowl that used to be New Orleans as containing "noxious gumbo." But there's no escape for the poor people who fled from that murk. At Houston's Astrodome, they got a visit from Barbara Bush, and "Mother," as George W. calls her, didn't know best.

Even more smug than her son, Mother Bush talked about how the refugees were "underprivileged anyway" and how life in the Astrodome was "working very well for them."

Typical stuff from a regime whose officials in effect told the starving people of Niger to eat yellowcake.

Mother Bush might describe fetid New Orleans as a quaint situation, although those aren't the words scientists are throwing around right now. Reporters Andrew Gumbel and Rupert Cornwell summed it up this way in yesterday's Independent (U.K.):

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has created a vast toxic soup that stretches across south-eastern Louisiana and Mississippi, and portends the arrival of an environmental disaster to rival the awe-inspiring destruction of property and human life over the past week.

And what's in this toxic soup?

The full extent of the danger is unknown and unknowable, but the polluted waters are known to contain human and animal waste, the bodies of people and animals, household effluence, and chemical and petrochemical toxins from the refineries that dot the Gulf coast in and around New Orleans.

The problem is this: You have to pump this horrifying shit out of New Orleans before the city can be rebuilt. But if the billions of gallons of poisonous crap is pumped into the Gulf of Mexico, marine and animal life in the whole region will be endangered. As the Independent's reporters add:

Even before the pumping is complete, a process city officials said yesterday would take at least three weeks (some engineers believe it could last months), the consequences for all living creatures — humans, animals, fish and micro-organisms — are likely to be dire.

"We're talking about a mass of decomposing dead bodies and animals. This is going to produce a horrible festering of unknown consequences," said Harold Zeliger, a chemical toxicologist and independent consultant based in New York State.

We're talking about a horror movie. Zeliger added:

We're looking conceivably at zero-dissolved oxygen, which will lead to the death of fish and other organisms. If the migratory birds who pass through the area find any fish to eat, they will be contaminated so the birds will start dying in large quantities. … Reptiles and snakes are going to be driven out of their nests and habitats, which has implications for human safety. We're going to see water moccasins [a highly venomous snake], which are nasty critters, and alligators threatening people.

Poor people and rich people.

Morning Report 9/7/05
The POTUS As Putz

Posted by Harkavy at 11:46 AM, September 7, 2005

All this talk about comparing George W. Bush's performance post–Katrina with his performance post–9-11 leaves me as ill as if I'd been drinking the water in New Orleans.

The Bush who failed to respond to Hurricane Katrina is the real Bush, the plodding, hapless guy whose administration was sputtering along until the 9/11 attack gave it the excuse to dust off the neocons' plans for a new American century.

Apparently, people have forgotten that immediately after the terrorists' planes crashed into New York City and the Pentagon, Secretary of War Don Rumsfeld and henchmen Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith jumped on Iraq to the exclusion of everything else. My colleague Jim Ridgeway reminded everyone of that as recently as August 23. (Refresh your memory with this passage in Paul Thompson's 9-11 Timeline.)

As the planes were hitting, remember, Bush himself froze. He was the nation's pet goat from that moment on.

He froze during Katrina, as well, and his handlers, shrewd as they are, have no interest in using government to care for the hopeless and helpless. The only hapless person they care to nurture and guide is Bush.

In the wake of Katrina, many Arabs, Jews, Hindus, Muslims — probably even Rosicrucians — have forgotten their immediate conflicts and are finally agreeing on something: The POTUS is a putz.

Except for the poor people in New Orleans, everyone's finding common high ground. This morning in the Khaleej Times, Dubai's biggest English paper, Aijaz Zaka Syed cleverly links disasters in "From Mumbai to New Orleans: Bungling with the Basics." Here's how he starts:

Recently when a friend censured India’s inadequate response to the rain-induced chaos and misery in Mumbai, the dormant patriotic Indian in me was cut to the quick. I reminded him that Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, was home to nearly 15 million people, which is far more than the population of many countries in Europe. And it is not easy rushing relief to a city this big without generating some complaints here and criticism there.

I was reminded of the challenge Mumbai and its courageous people faced while watching the incredible and disturbing scenes of total devastation and human suffering in America’s South on US television networks. It is hard to believe that the world’s richest and most powerful country, which claims to be the leader of the free world, could bungle so badly on the basics. The world’s only remaining superpower that has taken upon itself the great responsibility of saving and reforming the rest of the world, couldn’t protect its own people in its own backyard.

In Mumbai's defense, he points out, the scope of the continual rains that hit his nation's financial capital wasn't expected even in this monsoon season. Not true in Katrina's case, he adds:

The Americans, with the rest of the world, saw Katrina build itself up for days as the weathermen on 24/7 TV networks charted the course of the killer storm with incredible precision. The US authorities had all the time in the world to be ready with their aid and rescue missions to save those in the path of the hurricane.

This is why it is rather hard to accept the fact that the US administration couldn’t save and rescue and rush relief supplies to those who couldn’t leave their homes for days on end. While Katrina (what a pretty name for a monster!) lashed the Gulf Coast and the deep south killing thousands and displacing millions, President Bush continued to holiday at his Texas ranch. At a time when his people needed him most, America’s commander-in-chief — as the president loves to call himself — was bicycling his way to glory. How callous and indifferent can you get? But then you get the leaders you deserve — or choose.

Meanwhile, in yesterday's Haaretz, Gideon Samet connects the Katrina disaster to yet another storm. In "Bush Is Also Wrong About The Israeli Hurricane," Samet notes the Bush regime's latest piece of unwarranted aid and comfort to Ariel Sharon:

America finds it hard to remember when a president was so hapless during a national crisis as George Bush has been during the disaster in New Orleans. The White House's main defense is a neo-conservative ideology that places responsibility on the local authorities. The first neo-conservative president, Ronald Reagan, expressed its formative motto in his catchy way: Get the government off the backs of the people. But with Bush, during a tragic week, the government was a heavy burden on the backs of tens of thousands of groaning people in the dead city. Now, as Bush is advocating a line of policy vis-à-vis the Sharon government, it is best to search for cover.

In an effort to bolster Sharon in the Likud wars, Washington is now asking Europe to get off his back, not to demand that he carry out more gestures to the Palestinians. This request will be conveyed to the European leaders who are coming to the opening of the United Nations' General Assembly next week. The secretary of state will reiterate the request in a meeting with her Quartet partners, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. This is bad advice, lazy, unimaginative and narrow-sighted. It reminds one that during the past decades, the Americans have failed to anticipate almost all of the developments outside of its borders, from the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Soviet upheaval to the Palestinian intifada.

But what good are warnings — like the August 6, 2001 PDB or the Katrina forecasts — when you ignore them for the sake of ideology?