Another Reason I Love Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis is using his annual MDA telethon to aid victims of Katrina, The Moderate Voice reports.

Lewis has gone through various stages in his life and even taken a lot of criticism for various aspects of this telethon. But his action is not only laudable for the decision and the money it'll raise, but for the example it sets.

Amen.

Go on, make a joke about how the French love him. I dare you.

(Energy dome tip to Crooks & Liars. Click there, more good links, including a great reaction to Hastert by the Big Dog.)

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Bush Fakes Levee Repair for Photo Op.

No fucking shame.

And the buck passing has already begun.

I'm telling you, if the American people let them get away with this, I've completely lost all faith in them.

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Saturday Night Krazy Karaoke

With apologies to Jim Croce. Submit your own entries to Krazy Karaoke at Lefty's Lounge.

Bad Bad “Brownie” Brown

Well the department known as FEMA
Don’t like the baddest parts of town
If you’re in need of food
You’re gonna get screwed
By a man named “Brownie” Brown

Now “Brownie,” he’s in trouble
You see he shovels bullshit so thick
All the NOLA ladies call him “Dubya Lover”
All the men just call him “Dick.”

And he’s bad, bad “Brownie” Brown
Most heartless man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Now “Brownie,” he’s a gambler
Likes to risk other people’s lives
And he likes to wave his ideology
In front of everybody’s eyes
He’s got a job he really don’t deserve
And a big fat paycheck too
And got a thirty-two gun in his pocket full of fun
If you’re a looter, he’ll shoot you.

And he’s bad, bad “Brownie” Brown
Most useless man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Now Friday ‘bout a week ago
“Brownie,” shootin’ dice
From his cushy ol’ office
He watched the storm swirl
And ooh that storm looked nice
He thought about all them black folks
And knew they’d have to stay
Then “Brownie” Brown, he had a cigar
While he watched them get washed away.

Well, the black folks took to fighting
For their very souls and lives
Now “Brownie” looks like the bastard he is
Full of nothing but shit and lies.

And he’s bad, bad “Brownie” Brown
Most horrid man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Yeah, he’s badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog.

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Hero

This is total fucking bullshit, man. An 18-year-old kid who nicked an abandoned school bus to drive stranded victims of Katrina to Houston is being referred to as a thief and may face charges for stealing the bus. And note how the story lede refers to his actions as “an extreme act of looting.” Fuck you, assholes.

Thousands of refugees of Hurricane Katrina were transported to the Astrodome in Houston this week. In an extreme act of looting, one group actually stole a bus to escape ravaged areas in Louisiana.

About 100 people packed into the stolen bus. They were the first to enter the Houston Astrodome, but they weren't exactly welcomed.

The big yellow school bus wasn't expected or approved to pass through the stadium's gates. Randy Nathan, who was on the bus, said they were desperate to get out of town.

"If it weren’t for him right there," he said, "we'd still be in New Orleans underwater. He got the bus for us."

Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson jumped aboard the bus as it sat abandoned on a street in New Orleans and took control.

"I just took the bus and drove all the way here...seven hours straight,' Gibson admitted. "I hadn't ever drove a bus."

The teen packed it full of complete strangers and drove to Houston. He beat thousands of evacuees slated to arrive there.

[…]

Authorities eventually allowed the renegade passengers inside the dome. But the 18-year-old who ensured their safety could find himself in a world of trouble for stealing the school bus.

"I don’t care if I get blamed for it ," Gibson said, "as long as I saved my people."

Jabbor Gibson is a fucking hero. He had the presence of mind to find transportation and sort out how to drive it and the generosity to take people with him on his way out of the apocalypse; punishing him would be an exercise in such scumbaggery as to warrant its own circle of hell.

As Pam notes, “[H]e saved lives, and showed leadership in the midst of chaos, something sorely lacking in the clowns running this disaster relief effort.” No kidding.

And Charlie at Shades of Grey has a related thought, based on FEMA Director Michael Brown’s asinine comment that New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.

Let’s say a family did just up and leave. What now? Do you suppose the Astrodome is taking just anybody who shows up at the door and says, Hey, I was in New Orleans last Saturday, but now I don’t have a home? Or do you think that they’re probably only taking the people who come from officially sanctioned channels?

Looks like Charlie’s right. Because they weren’t expected, the “renegade passengers” were denied entry until they eventually convinced authorities to let them in.

And how on earth are people who take responsibility for their own fates, as Brown suggested they’d need to do, renegades?

I guess that’s the same kind of circular logic that allows Bush’s supporters to defend the length of time it’s taken to get people evacuated because “no one saw it coming,” but also condemn the people who didn’t leave because “they knew it was coming.”

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Citizen Flotilla of Rescuers Turned Away by FEMA

I shit you not. (Hat tip Jill.)

So, the Red Cross isn't allowed in, citizen-organized rescue teams aren't allowed in, people are still stranded days after the fact, but "Brownie" is doing a heck of a job, according to our idiot president.

You know, once the survivors of this thing actually have access to news and find out all the massive cockups that contribted to their having been stranded in horrific conditions for days on end, I think we can add an unprecedented number of lawsuit settlements to the already staggering amounts of money this administration has cost this country.

[Note: I think there's something that bars the government from being sued, but I know there are certain awards that have been paid in response to there having been fault found with the government's actions (reparations for slavery, Tuskegee Airmen, forced sterilization, etc.), and I'm not sure if this could even possibly qualify, because I'm not sure what influences that decision. But I've emailed someone who might know.]

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Fuzzy Pictures of What Went Wrong

I don’t think we’ve begun to get the full scope of everything that went wrong on a national level with this thing, but some information is beginning to trickle out, and it’s likely to prompt a Congressional investigation. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) is saying that someone needs to be held accountable for the evident breakdowns in the nation's emergency response capabilities. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) is questioning whether we really have enough National Guard resources to respond with so many troops in Iraq. I hope that Congress is actually determined to genuinely get to the bottom of something for a change.

Anyway, something that I have not been able to understand at all (which is why I haven’t written about it) is why Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, whose job it would be under a natural disaster scenario just such as this, didn’t earlier request National Guard assistance from other states. Part of the reason certainly seems to be incompetence:

Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler, who leads the Michigan National Guard, said he anticipated a call for police units and started preparing them, but couldn't go until states in the hurricane zone asked them to come.

"We could have had people on the road Tuesday," Cutler said. "We have to wait and respond to their need."

The Michigan National Guard was asked for military police by Mississippi late Tuesday and by Louisiana officials late Wednesday. The state sent 182 MPs to Mississippi on Friday and had 242 headed to Louisiana on Saturday.

Another part of the problem seems to be that, because New Orleans’ police force fell to shit, any National Guard coming in was going to be required to perform law enforcement duties, separate agreements for the authorization of those activities had to be executed.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday.

But, Lt. Gen. Steven H. Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon, says that work only took “minutes to execute.” So where, exactly, was the hold-up? In Louisiana, or D.C.?

All of that said, if the governors of the affected states were going a piss-poor job, it is still within the president’s purview to see to it that shit gets done:

Bush had the legal authority to order the National Guard to the disaster area himself, as he did after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks . But the troops four years ago were deployed for national security protection, and presidents of both parties traditionally defer to governors to deploy their own National Guardsmen and request help from other states when it comes to natural disasters.

In addition to Guard help, the federal government could have activated, but did not, a major air support plan under a pre-existing contract with airlines. The program, called Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, lets the government quickly put private cargo and passenger planes into service.

The CRAF provision has been activated twice, once for the Persian Gulf War and again for the Iraq war.

No definitive conclusions yet. Just passing on the news.

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Let Them Eat Cake

All I can really say is that I’m beginning to understand the French Revolution in a way I never thought I would.

Buses taking Hurricane Katrina victims far from the squalor of the Superdome stopped rolling early Saturday. As many as 5,000 people remained in the stadium and could be there until Sunday, according to the Texas Air National Guard…

Those left behind early Saturday were orderly, sitting down after hearing news that evacuations were temporarily stalled…

Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air Force National Guard said 20,000 people were in the dome when evacuation efforts began. That number swelled as people poured into the Superdome because they believed it was the best place to get a ride out of town.

He estimated Saturday morning that between 2,000 and 5,000 people were left at the Superdome. But it remained a mystery why the buses stopped coming to pick up refugees and shuttle them away…

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, near the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome.

The official explanation is that the hotel, which is situated across the street from city hall, was cleared with priority because the mayor has been using it as a base, and, once cleared, it could be used to house police, firefighters, etc. But I just don’t understand why, if as Texas Air National Guard Capt. Jean Clark says, “the buses had kept coming, we would have this whole place cleaned out already or pretty close to it,” the decision wasn’t made to just get the last of those poor people out of that filthy environment and then turn attention toward evacuating the hotel. Was situating officials in the hotel (and whatever other reasons have delayed the Superdome evacuation) so imperative that now some people are going to be stuck there until tomorrow? This is utter insanity.

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Fatal Flaw

In his post A Small Man, Ezra notes:

George W. Bush is not up to the task of leadership. That's not said as a criticism, actually -- I am not up to the task of dancing, or running marathons. We all have failings, and Bush's essential flaw is an inability to project himself, an inability to grow in dimension during a crisis, an inability to sense that catastrophes serve as opportunities for strengthening the American community.

It will probably come as no surprise that Ezra is being kinder than I will be.

You see, Ezra’s a really good man, so I suspect that if he knew that a job he was considering taking meant that millions of people’s lives depended on his ability to dance, or run marathons, he wouldn’t take the job. George Bush—and not just Bush, but all the architects of the social Darwinist, every-man-for-himself conservative ideology that in the aftermath of Katrina is being exposed for the depraved, compassionless, anti-American bullshit that it is—knew well before Bush cast in his name as a potential leader that he isn’t up to the task of leadership. He was a half-assed soldier, a terrible businessman, and a bad governor. Anyone who had encountered him in any of these previous roles could attest to as much; it’s not as if Bush hadn’t been given ample opportunity to discern within himself that he isn’t up to the task of leadership. How many times does one have to flail on a dancefloor to know that he isn’t a good dancer?

I think it’s not only legitimate, but necessary, that Bush’s not being up to the task of leadership be levied at him as the most sincerest of criticisms. Someone who wants to spend 20% of his time on vacation isn’t fit to be president. Someone who can muster no more than “I’m not looking forward to this trip,” as he is about the survey the damage from perhaps the greatest natural disaster in the nation’s history isn’t fit to be president. Someone who sees this nearly inconceivable tragedy not, as Ezra notes, as an opportunity for strengthening the American community, but instead as the opportunity for a photo op—someone who indeed thinks that stellar photo ops making him look like a leader are more important than actually being a leadeer—isn’t fit to be president. And all of these things were patently obvious about George Bush well before he took office.

An insignificant, irresponsible slip of a man should never have put himself forth for this job in the first place, and having delusions of grandeur that allowed him to convince himself he was up to the task shouldn’t garner him a pass. You’re just not allowed to fudge your résumé when the lives of an entire nation are in your hands.

(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)

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Donation Links

The Green Knight has a great roundup of links for donating to the rescue. I think we've gone beyond "relief effort" here.

And just a side note, you all probably know this already, but "Operation Blessing" is Pat Robertson's "relief organization." May I humbly suggest sending your donations elsewhere?


Update: Kathy pointed me to this link that will let you know a little more about the "good work" that Mister Robertson has been doing. (He said with extreme sarcasm)

(Cross-post)

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“George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People.”

Kanye West.

His comments were edited out of the West Coast rebroadcast, apparently because NBC hates the truth.

Which at least explains the last several years of Meet the Press.

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“Let Them Go.”

This is some of the most stunning news footage I believe I’ve ever seen. Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera, serving as correspondents for Fox during the Hannity and Colmes show, located just outside the convention center in NOLA, completely lose their shit on the air. Smith holds it in at certain points, issuing through clenched teeth one-word rebuttals to Hannity’s attempts to spin, but Rivera makes no effort to hide his frustration and disgust, beginning to sob as he holds a baby and repeats over and over that the government, currently prohibiting people from leaving the convention center, needs to let them go.

To get an idea of what the situation is really like there, check out the Sept 1 entry comprised of notes from an interview conducted by this blogger via cell phone with one of the people stranded at the convention center:

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

[…]

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

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

The buses never stop.

[…]

He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.

These people were instructed to go to the convention center, then left for dead. At least 24 hours after this interview was conducted, Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were saying the situation was still exactly the same, with no food, water, or medical supplies, and the people forced to stay put in horrendous conditions.

Meanwhile, with the Red Cross being prevented from entering the city, it’s beginning to seem more and more like the refugees at the convention center were being held there in misery to give the president the best fucking photo op.

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Superb

When governments negotiate with terrorists, everyone in the free world suffers. When political leaders sound the sirens of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence. Working together, we will defeat the killers, and we'll do this by refusing to bargain about our most fundamental principles.

— President Bush, September 23, 2004

As it struggles to combat Islamic terrorist networks, the Bush administration has quietly built an intelligence alliance with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, a onetime bitter enemy the U.S. had tried for years to isolate, topple or kill…

Kadafi came to power in 1969 at the age of 27, when he led a coup that overthrew Libya's pro-Western monarchy. A decade later, the Carter administration placed Libya on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, where it remains.

— The LA Times, September 4, 2005

Kadafi views Islamic extremists as a threat to his secular, oil-rich regime. If that sounds to you surprisingly like a regime we just toppled, you’re not alone. The only difference is that the dictator Hussein went from friend to foe, but Kadafi’s relationship trajectory with the US was the exact opposite. Formerly considered a terrorist leader of a rogue regime, he’s now our pal. Even though Libya remains on our state-sponsored terrorism list. Figure that one out.

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Friday Night Krazy Karaoke

(With sincerest apologies to the rock and roll sex god known as David Bowie, whom I worship only slightly less than Morrissey, and thanks to The Heretik, to whom Krazy Karaoke belongs.)

Icky Preznit

Icky played guitar,
Jamming good with Rove and Cheney,
The Cretins from Hell.
He played it left hand, but made it too far,
Became the preznit man; we’re stuck in Icky’s Land.

Icky really stinks,
Squinty eyes and Wolfie-licked hairdo.
His pa hurled in Japan; they just keep right on smiling
While they leave us to hang.
Came in so loaded man, quite dumb and farmer’s tan.

So where are the Dems, while the Right tries to break our balls?
Cowed by fear of reprisal,
So we bitch about them, too, but refugees are still trapped in poo.

Icky played for time, jiving us with economic voodoo.
The preznit’s just crass; he is an ass.
A fortunate son—
He wouldn’t go to war but boy can he play guitar.

Making love with his ego
Icky says he understands;
Thinks he’s a messiah
Who will impeach this man so we can break up his band?

Oh yeah
Ooooooo
Icky played guiiiii-taarrrrrr

(Thanks to Misty from Expostulation for the picture.)

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I Couldn’t Make This Shit Up

Halliburton has been awarded a contract to do Katrina clean-up at naval bases.

The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

KBR was assigned the work under a "construction capabilities" contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers' effort to repair New Orleans' levees.

Halliburton: Turning Tragedy Into Profit Since 1919.

[UPDATE: Pam's got more.]

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Rescue Bus Overturns

I hate to follow up D’s beautiful, hopeful post with more bad news, but it seems like kind of an important story:

One Hurricane Katrina evacuee died and 17 others were injured when a bus carrying them from the Superdome swerved across a highway median and overturned Friday.

The accident happened when the driver lost control of the bus, but other details about what caused the wreck were not immediately known, said Trooper Willie Williams, spokesman for the state police.

Between 45 and 50 people were on the bus; every one was transported to a hospital, he said.

"We have multiple critical injuries and multiple serious injuries and some minor injuries," Williams said.

No words.

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Wow, he finally isn't looking forward to something

From the man who's always saying "I'm looking forward to it," we get this: (bolds mine)

After saying that federal relief efforts so far “are not acceptable,” President Bush opened a tour of the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast on Friday by vowing the government will restore order in lawless New Orleans and saying the $10.5 billion being approved by Congress is just a small down payment for disaster relief.

On Mississippi's stricken coast, he met with sobbing residents amid the wreckage of their community.

In Biloxi, Miss., Bush encountered two weeping women on a street where a house had collapsed and towering trees were stripped of their branches. "My son needs clothes," said Bronwynne Bassier, 23, clutching several trash bags. "I don't have anything."

"I understand that," Bush said. He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army. "Hang in there," he said.

Hang in there. Get your help from the Salvation Army. Jesus.

“I’m not looking forward to this trip,” Bush said as he set out for a firsthand look at the destruction in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Fuck you, Bush. This is what you signed up for when you became the President. Being the President isn't all showing off, swagger, sending soldiers to die and then having a light lobster salad lunch. This is what Presidents do. I know you'd much rather be on the ranch or entertaining doughy rich white men at a fundraiser, but you're the President of the United States. Your country is in crisis.

As Tbogg says, shut the fuck up and do your job.

(Just when you think you've hit the bottom of the barrel cross-post)

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In Good News…

The California State Senate passed a bill legalizing gay marriage. (It still has to pass the State Assembly before it can become law.)

In related news, Fred Phelps prays for an earthquake, and I give him the stink-eye.

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Friday Blogrollin'

Stop by and say hello to:

Birmingham Blues

DED Space

intous

Redd Turtle

Evil Mommy

Dependable Renegade

Reading A1

Really. Go check 'em out.

They're worth your time.

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Someone Remind Me—Before What Doth Pride Goeth…?

The AP, via MSNBC, reports:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided “no offer that can help alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be refused”…

Then, after recounting that help in the form of “boats, aircraft, tents, blankets, generators, cash assistance and medical teams” has been offered from Venezuela, Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Jamaica, Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of American States, the story goes on to say:

Still, Bush told ABC-TV: “I’m not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country’s going to rise up and take care of it.”

“You know,” he said, “we would love help, but we’re going to take care of our own business as well, and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed…”

What the hell? Are we accepting help, or are we not? And why in the name of all that’s holy is the President insisting we go it alone? It’s fucking rude to rebuke such offers, apart from just being plain old idiotic for both logistical and fiscal reasons. Allow America to be helped, you tool. There’s nothing admirable under normal circumstances about being a martyr when one doesn’t have to be, and when you’re sacrificing other people for your cause, that’s really unimpressive.

Also, someone really needs to tell Bush that issuing reassurances about an endeavor by invoking his own certainty about its success just makes people giggle maniacally now.

(Hat tip Ariadne’s Labyrinth.)

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Yeesh

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a mad animal lover, and I have a particular fondness, as it happens, for dolphins. But something about the fact that dolphins have been moved to safety—and something even more about the fact that Comcast has had this bloody picture on its front page for two days—when there are people still stuck on rooftops is kind of pissing me off. And I know that it’s not like the dolphins were rescued instead of people, but it’s just irritating that we can manage to relocate dolphins and not humans.

Maybe the next time a camera-wielding helicopter flies over a rooftop refuge, instead of holding up signs that say “Help Us!” the refugees should leap through hula hoops and balance balls on the ends of their noses.

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