September 03, 2005

Good Riddance Judge Rehnquist!

Letter to the Editor

When a person passes we reflect upon the life of that person and how he changed society. I think that most people would agree that Justice Rehnquist's most enduring legacy will be the 5th vote that appointed Bush president, substituting his judgment for the will of the American electorate. Had he not joined in appointing Bush we would not be at war in Iraq. We would not have gone from the most prosperous nation on the planet to the biggest debtor nation on the planet. And - it would have cost less than half to fill our gas tank than it does today.

When a person passes they leave a legacy behind. What a person does in life often affects generations to come. It's just too bad Justice Rehnquist couldn't have taken his legacy with him because life in this world is far worse today because of his bad choices. His passing reminds us that when we face the judgment of history, if we want to be remembered well, we have to accomplish good things in our lives.

Posted by marc at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2005

FEMA directs donations to TV Evangelist Pat Robertson

Letter to the Editor

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is directing donations to TV Evangelist Pat Robertson (Operation Blessing) who recently called for the assassination of the president of Venezuela. I think it's a shame that in this hour of crisis that Bush and FEMA are teaming up with crooked crazy evangelists to scam people who want to help. That might explain why FEMAs response to this disaster have been so ineffective. It appears that Religion has joined in on the looting of America along with the oil companies. Americans want to help the hurricane victims, not make Bush's political buddies rich.

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Details at:

http://www.sploid.com/news/2005/09/01/fema-directing-donations-to-rev-pat-robertson-123509.php

FEMA Web Page

http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/katrinadonations.shtm

Pat Robertson's Page

http://www.patrobertson.com/humanitarian/

Posted by marc at 08:35 AM | Comments (1)

Denial Driven Hurricane Response


I watch in utter amazement at the lack of response to the hurricane disaster in New Orleans. I see reporters being able to drive in and out.and cover the story, so why can't they get an army of thousands of buses to at least get the people out of there? They could at least helicopter in food and water but they don't. If I know the response was going to be this slow I would have grabbed a school bus and driven out there from California and started hauling people out myself.

We are sitting here doing nothing and allowing people to suffer and die when we could drive in there and rescue them. But we don't do that because we have to protect the tax cuts for the rich and make sure that the oil companies maintain record profits. All of America is being looted and it started 5 years ago. I'm sorry Bush had to cut his vacation short leaving his ranch after the hurricane rather than before. But at least he got past war protester mom Cindy Sheehan without getting noticed. I'm really angry. We need to fix this.

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PS - Several things confuse me about this. The reporters are driving in so there is dry clear roads into there. Not only could they grab every school bus within 1000 miles to drive them out - but if I were there I would just walk out. The flooded area can't be that big and a few hours of walking and you're out. Why aren't people at least walking out?

The only place for refugees is all the way to Houston Texas? Can't we take some of them to north? Can't we take over facilities closer than Houston? What about Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis? These are our people down there. This is fucking insane!

I've seen shows on the Discover Channel years ago predicting this, so we already knew what was going to happen. Yet when a cat 5 hurricane headed for the city the evacuation wasn't near as mandatory as it should have been. New Orleans actually got lucky at the last minute that it didn't hit directly. The military should have been mobilized for a forced evacuation before it hit.

Bush is asking his dad and Clinton to come pass the collection plate. Why doesn't the Fed drop something in. The 10 billion they are proposing 5 days after the disaster - which still hasn't been passed by the vacationing Congress - is less than the tax cuts the oil companies got. Do we see an emergency session of Congress like the one they convened to interfere with the death of Terri Schiavo? NO! Again - FUCKING INSANE !!!!!!!!!!

I also question rebuilding New Orleans. The city is way below sea level - continues to sink, and with global warming we are going to see stronger hurricanes and more of them. And September is just starting. We will probably be hit several more time this year in Florida and on the east coast.

Maybe Congress could end their fucking vacation and show up in Washington to do something about it. American is falling apart and the very character of this country is in question by our ambivalence towards our own disasters. When we protect the tax cuts of the rich and watch the poor die and do nothing it shows the world what kind of people we are. And it's not anything to be proud of.

Posted by marc at 07:49 AM | Comments (1)

August 31, 2005

New Orleans Looting

There's two kinds of looting going on in New Orleans. Anyone stealing food and water and supples to stay alive is totally understandable. But there's just a lot of stealing property that is just pure theivery.

I don't know if it was just not in the news but I don't remember hearing reports of this kind of looting after the tsunami last year in other countries. It seems that a lot of people in New Orleans are just criminals taking advantage of an opportunity to steal.

Posted by marc at 11:31 PM | Comments (1)

New Orleans pays the price for Iraq

Letter to the Editor

Normally we would have a national guard to come in and deal with natural disasters like the hurricane in New Orleans. Thousands of people are likely to die for lack of resources to evacuate people and bring in emergency aid. But we don't have a national guard in our own country anymore because they are all over in Iraq. Poor judgment has put America at risk.

Posted by marc at 01:10 PM | Comments (1)

Changing the Environment

Letter to the Editor

A few months ago I was driving behind a very large SUV that had a bumper sticker that said, "I'm changing your environment." From what I see with all the hurricanes I know exactly what that person is talking about.

Posted by marc at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2005

Time to fill up your gas tank

Better fill up now because in a few days gas is going to be a lot higher than it is now - if you can get it.

Posted by marc at 02:36 PM | Comments (1)

New Orleans is about to show why below sea level is a mistake

New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen and this hurricane is probably going to demonstrate why that is. New Orleans is 15 feet below sea level, on the coast surrounded by water on 3 sides. With the right storm surge conditions it could instantly fill with water in a way that the dikes that normally protect it could actually hold the water in.

I'm definitely glad I'm not living there as I sit on the adge of the San Andreas fault watching it on TV.

If you are still in New Orleans and reading this - GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE AS FAST AS YOU CAN !!!!

Posted by marc at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

What is the noble cause?

Letter to the Editor

Whether or not you agree with the Iraq conflict Cindy Sheehan is asking an important question that should be answered. She is asking what the noble cause is that her son died for.

If Americans are being asked to give the lives of their sons and daughters, their wives and husbands, and their parents then America should at least be able to articulate why it is that we are there and what we hope to accomplish. The reason we went in has proved to be false. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has recently failed to agree on a constitution and the unsupported proposed constitution to be voted on establishes and Islamic state. So - is establishing an Islamic state the noble cause that we are fighting and dying for? I sure hope not!

The real issues that Cindy Sheehan is trying to point out is that we don't know why we are there and we don't know what we are doing. The problem is that there is no plan. Even the most hawkish of the war supporters need to at least know that Bush has a plan.

Posted by marc at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)