Another housegutting operation

Ray is leading a housegutting for Gentilly blogger, Morwen.

We will start on Morwen’s house this Sunday, 9/17, at 9:00am. The address is 2918 Annette St:

This is the crew for this week:

Morwen Madrigal Ray Shea Oyster Maitri Maitri’s friend, Julie Karen Coffeebeans Cade Roux Rick Schroeder maybe a few AWK folks

I went over there this afternoon to look around inside. It’s a 1 story house, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, wall to wall carpet, with a separate 2-story apartment which is very small. The house is on piers, about 3 steps up from the ground.

The good news:

* It is sparsely furnished compared to the last few houses we’ve done.

* The floor seems structurally sound.

* There is very little furniture at all in the back apartment.

* It’s an open layout with French doors in the front, so it will be very easy to nagivate around and bring stuff out.

The more challenging news:

* The folks that Morwen bought the house from were very paranoid and so all the windows are sealed with bulletproof plexiglass under bars, so it will require power tools with special square bits to be able to remove the bars and plexiglass to get some air in there. I might try to go over there tomorrow some time to try to get a jump on that if anybody wants to join me.

* The kitchen ceiling has collapsed due to water so we will need to clear out the soggy ceiling boards and insulation to be able to get to the appliances.

* There is a FEMA trailer between the front door and the place where we most likely want to build our debris pile, so we will have to go the long way around with the wheelbarrows.

Arabi Wrecking Krewe has agreed to loan us their equipment and even possibly a few volunteers, but if you signed up to bring anything, please bring it anyway just in case.

Curious George’s Jackson Square speech redux

One year ago today, the boneless chickenhawk monkey boy preznit had his handlers clean up Jackson Square, and light St. Louis Cathedral using generators, for a face-saving photo op (my remarks highlighted).

We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. …

How much longer is it going to take to provide hope to the more than 250,000 New Orleanians who need to get back into their homes. If your excuse is that local authorities need to come up with a plan, then why aren’t you proactively engaged in shepherding that process to get it moving along? And by the way, who was that guy you appointed to be the Gulf Coast recovery czar?

In the task of recovery and rebuilding, some of the hardest work is still ahead, and it will require the creative skill and generosity of a united country. …

So why aren’t you more actively defending the character of New Orleanians who continue to be hounded by your right-wing moralist gestapo.

As all of us saw on television, there’s also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality. …

Uh … and where’s your plan? Could it be that there wasn’t any money left over after you finished doling out debris contracts to gigantic private corporations like your Halliburton and Shaw patrons who take all the money and pay unscrupulous wages to immigrants? Is it even conceivable in your monkey brain that you could have run a lower-cost, WPA-style administration to oversee contracts bid out to capable local firms, thus providing jobs to desperate locals? Have you come up with a plan to make sure the same mistakes aren’t made in the future? Of course, I know you haven’t, because frankly, you like the fact that your friends profit from your incompetent leadership.

And to help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity. Home ownership is one of the great strengths of any community, and it must be a central part of our vision for the revival of this region.

All I have to say is, you damn sure ain’t no Roosevelt, monkey man!

In the life of this nation, we have often been reminded that nature is an awesome force, and that all life is fragile. We’re the heirs of men and women who lived through those first terrible winters at Jamestown and Plymouth, who rebuilt Chicago after a great fire, and San Francisco after a great earthquake, who reclaimed the prairie from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Every time, the people of this land have come back from fire, flood, and storm to build anew — and to build better than what we had before. Americans have never left our destiny to the whims of nature — and we will not start now.

So, where’s your commitment to Category 5 storm protection and coastal restoration — NOW! Or how about getting a little more assertively behind the offshore royalties bill, now in danger of failure as it goes through a contentious House-Senate reconciliation battle, to make sure Louisiana gets the best deal possible so it can defend herself.

These trials have also reminded us that we are often stronger than we know — with the help of grace and one another.

Translation: Go eff yourselves! The Gulf Coast recovery is strictly going to be left to the vagaries of speculators and profiteers of the glorious laissez faire (taxpayer-subsidized) marketplace. A year after the storm, are you waiting for your insurance company to settle while they’ve doubled your premiums? Tough shit! A year after the storm, you still don’t have a place to live but you still have to pay your mortgage? Tough shit! A year after the storm, businesses and non-profits aren’t investing in your neighborhood because they’re waiting to see what’s going to happen with the levees and pumping stations? Tough shit! If you can’t pull yourself up by your own damn bootstraps (by getting a plum government contract), we don’t need you in our country club America!

There’s absolutely nothing on the White House home page about New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or hurricane recovery. I guess the preznit must think his job is done.

For the rest of you outside of New Orleans wondering what the legacy of the Bush administration is, take a look at what’s happening here. As New Orleans goes, so goes the rest of the nation. There will be more disasters like this in the future. If you don’t like what you see, then it’s time to join the Katrina dissident movement, where we don’t accept excuses, we see through the lies, we demand responsive, effective services for our tax dollars, and our rallying cry is, failure is not an option!

A good place to get your feet wet muddy is by signing up with a non-profit organization (like The Arabi Wrecking Krewe) to help gut and rebuild houses.

ThinkNOLA has a sign-up to help a fellow blogger, Morwen, get her Gentilly house gutted.

Incompetence and negligence aren’t exclusively White House phenomena. We don’t have to look far to find politicians ripping off taxpayers, as Dambala recently discovered. Thanks to his diligent research through public records, he uncovered a deal Ray Nagin is trying to make to cut himself in on the profit from the hurricane recovery:

“See-Ray-Rape-Nawlins” launches a real estate company with developer David White (owner of McDonalds’ franchise, Table One on Magazine, and appointed to the BNOB committee by Nagin) 2005 pre-K. Here, we have a Mayor who is in the real estate business in the city he’s governing…conflict of interest? One would think.

It’s clear evidence of the duplicitous rationale for Ray Nagin’s market-based approach to “governing” the city’s recovery, and offers just one more justification for why Ray Nagin needs to be recalled.

Nagin must see another guy when he looks in the mirror. Take a look at some of the things he says about himself on the city Web site:

… progressive policies … unleashed unprecedented economic development … 37,000 people were removed from the poverty rolls during the first three years … led and managed the largest mass evacuation and largest natural disaster in the nation’s history

In other matters, the September 18th edition of The Nation hit the newsstands this week. Inside is a story by Michael Tisserand about the New Orleans blog movement, and the online edition of The Nation features links to a (very small) handful of celebrated blogs.

Speaking of the media and democracy, Stop Big Media is reporting that the former shill for corporate media giants, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, buried a report he commissioned in 2004 because it showed that locally-owned broadcasters produce more local news than stations owned by big corporations. The result of the study was the opposite of what Powell hoped to find. Since the report was commissioned by a government entity, and was paid for by taxpayers, it should have been made publicly available.

In other media news, ThinkProgress is reporting that Air America Radio (heard on 1350 AM in New Orleans) is restructuring, and may be headed for bankruptcy. I’m an avid listener, although I admit I can’t stand the dull logic and pedantic rhythm of Jerry Springer’s voice, and Ed Schultz’s screaming rants drive me as crazy as do Rush Limbaugh’s (technically, Schultz isn’t an Air America personality). There are, however, some extraordinary talents on that Air America network. I’m especially fond of Al Franken, who’s low-key humor and intelligent conversation with engaging guests is refreshing and stimulating. I also like (and hope AAR will retain) Rachel Maddow, Laura Flanders of The Nation, State of Belief, and Ring of Fire. There are other programs in the AAR lineup that aren’t heard in the New Orleans market. Frankly, I think WWL (which owns 1350 AM) ought to run some of those other programs rather than the other banter they offer at odd hours.

One way Air America fans can support the network is by joining as a member.

Hey, the Saints might have Reggie Bush, but the Big Easy Roller Girls have Sophie Nuke ‘Em!

I wouldn’t miss the first roller derby bout in New Orleans tomorrow for anything — not even to see the Saints crushed by the Green Bay Packers! Actually, I’d be tickled to see the Saints win, but my favorite team has always been the Pack.

Tune in to WTUL’s Community Gumbo, 91.5 FM (or online at WTUL.FM), Saturday morning at 9 a.m., to hear interviews with the Big Easy Roller Girls.

Finally, (fellow GB fan) Maitri and I are at last disposing of our recycle collections. You can too, at the Green Project.

And it was thanks to Maitri that an impromptu 3rd Geek Dinner was organized around a visit by Earthlink blogger Dave Coustan. I may have more to say about this in the future, but let me just point out for the record — as one who hates BellSouth and Cox — that the prospect of Earthlink’s high-speed wireless network throughout New Orleans is not just a source of personal joy, it represents a desperately-needed positive sign for New Orleans. I hope Earthlink recognizes that this isn’t just a good business opportunity, but is in fact a highly-marketable and prestigious gesture of good will. We are fortunate that EarthLink has given us this gift, to help us raise our outlooks a little, and I’m sure it will be rewarded for its investment when people in New Orleans and around the country come to understand and appreciate EarthLink’s good gesture.

Related:

New Orleans, 1 A.K.

C. Ray Nagin: Katrina Boneless Chicken

Louisiana blog revolt spotlighted in The Nation

Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America’s Wetland | We Are Not OK | Rebuild New Orleans | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Ray Nagin | Recall Ray Nagin | Hurricane Katrina One Year Anniversary

Curious George’s Jackson Square speech redux

One year ago today, the boneless chickenhawk monkey boy preznit had his handlers clean up Jackson Square, and light St. Louis Cathedral using generators, for a face-saving photo op (my remarks highlighted).

We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. …

How much longer is it going to take to provide hope to the more than 250,000 New Orleanians who need to get back into their homes. If your excuse is that local authorities need to come up with a plan, then why aren’t you proactively engaged in shepherding that process to get it moving along? And by the way, who was that guy you appointed to be the Gulf Coast recovery czar?

In the task of recovery and rebuilding, some of the hardest work is still ahead, and it will require the creative skill and generosity of a united country. …

So why aren’t you more actively defending the character of New Orleanians who continue to be hounded by your right-wing moralist gestapo.

As all of us saw on television, there’s also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality. …

Uh … and where’s your plan? Could it be that there wasn’t any money left over after you finished doling out debris contracts to gigantic private corporations like your Halliburton and Shaw patrons who take all the money and pay unscrupulous wages to immigrants? Is it even conceivable in your monkey brain that you could have run a lower-cost, WPA-style administration to oversee contracts bid out to capable local firms, thus providing jobs to desperate locals? Have you come up with a plan to make sure the same mistakes aren’t made in the future? Of course, I know you haven’t, because frankly, you like the fact that your friends profit from your incompetent leadership.

And to help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity. Home ownership is one of the great strengths of any community, and it must be a central part of our vision for the revival of this region.

All I have to say is, you damn sure ain’t no Roosevelt, monkey man!

In the life of this nation, we have often been reminded that nature is an awesome force, and that all life is fragile. We’re the heirs of men and women who lived through those first terrible winters at Jamestown and Plymouth, who rebuilt Chicago after a great fire, and San Francisco after a great earthquake, who reclaimed the prairie from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Every time, the people of this land have come back from fire, flood, and storm to build anew — and to build better than what we had before. Americans have never left our destiny to the whims of nature — and we will not start now.

So, where’s your commitment to Category 5 storm protection and coastal restoration — NOW! Or how about getting a little more assertively behind the offshore royalties bill, now in danger of failure as it goes through a contentious House-Senate reconciliation battle, to make sure Louisiana gets the best deal possible so it can defend herself.

These trials have also reminded us that we are often stronger than we know — with the help of grace and one another.

Translation: Go eff yourselves! The Gulf Coast recovery is strictly going to be left to the vagaries of speculators and profiteers of the glorious laissez faire (taxpayer-subsidized) marketplace. A year after the storm, are you waiting for your insurance company to settle while they’ve doubled your premiums? Tough shit! A year after the storm, you still don’t have a place to live but you still have to pay your mortgage? Tough shit! A year after the storm, businesses and non-profits aren’t investing in your neighborhood because they’re waiting to see what’s going to happen with the levees and pumping stations? Tough shit! If you can’t pull yourself up by your own damn bootstraps (by getting a plum government contract), we don’t need you in our country club America!

There’s absolutely nothing on the White House home page about New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or hurricane recovery. I guess the preznit must think his job is done.

For the rest of you outside of New Orleans wondering what the legacy of the Bush administration is, take a look at what’s happening here. As New Orleans goes, so goes the rest of the nation. There will be more disasters like this in the future. If you don’t like what you see, then it’s time to join the Katrina dissident movement, where we don’t accept excuses, we see through the lies, we demand responsive, effective services for our tax dollars, and our rallying cry is, failure is not an option!

A good place to get your feet wet muddy is by signing up with a non-profit organization (like The Arabi Wrecking Krewe) to help gut and rebuild houses.

ThinkNOLA has a sign-up to help a fellow blogger, Morwen, get her Gentilly house gutted.

Incompetence and negligence aren’t exclusively White House phenomena. We don’t have to look far to find politicians ripping off taxpayers, as Dambala recently discovered. Thanks to his diligent research through public records, he uncovered a deal Ray Nagin is trying to make to cut himself in on the profit from the hurricane recovery:

“See-Ray-Rape-Nawlins” launches a real estate company with developer David White (owner of McDonalds’ franchise, Table One on Magazine, and appointed to the BNOB committee by Nagin) 2005 pre-K. Here, we have a Mayor who is in the real estate business in the city he’s governing…conflict of interest? One would think.

It’s clear evidence of the duplicitous rationale for Ray Nagin’s market-based approach to “governing” the city’s recovery, and offers just one more justification for why Ray Nagin needs to be recalled.

Nagin must see another guy when he looks in the mirror. Take a look at some of the things he says about himself on the city Web site:

… progressive policies … unleashed unprecedented economic development … 37,000 people were removed from the poverty rolls during the first three years … led and managed the largest mass evacuation and largest natural disaster in the nation’s history

In other matters, the September 18th edition of The Nation hit the newsstands this week. Inside is a story by Michael Tisserand about the New Orleans blog movement, and the online edition of The Nation features links to a (very small) handful of celebrated blogs.

Speaking of the media and democracy, Stop Big Media is reporting that the former shill for corporate media giants, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, buried a report he commissioned in 2004 because it showed that locally-owned broadcasters produce more local news than stations owned by big corporations. The result of the study was the opposite of what Powell hoped to find. Since the report was commissioned by a government entity, and was paid for by taxpayers, it should have been made publicly available.

In other media news, ThinkProgress is reporting that Air America Radio (heard on 1350 AM in New Orleans) is restructuring, and may be headed for bankruptcy. I’m an avid listener, although I admit I can’t stand the dull logic and pedantic rhythm of Jerry Springer’s voice, and Ed Schultz’s screaming rants drive me as crazy as do Rush Limbaugh’s (technically, Schultz isn’t an Air America personality). There are, however, some extraordinary talents on that Air America network. I’m especially fond of Al Franken, who’s low-key humor and intelligent conversation with engaging guests is refreshing and stimulating. I also like (and hope AAR will retain) Rachel Maddow, Laura Flanders of The Nation, State of Belief, and Ring of Fire. There are other programs in the AAR lineup that aren’t heard in the New Orleans market. Frankly, I think WWL (which owns 1350 AM) ought to run some of those other programs rather than the other banter they offer at odd hours.

One way Air America fans can support the network is by joining as a member.

Hey, the Saints might have Reggie Bush, but the Big Easy Roller Girls have Sophie Nuke ‘Em!

I wouldn’t miss the first roller derby bout in New Orleans tomorrow for anything — not even to see the Saints crushed by the Green Bay Packers! Actually, I’d be tickled to see the Saints win, but my favorite team has always been the Pack.

Tune in to WTUL’s Community Gumbo, 91.5 FM (or online at WTUL.FM), Saturday morning at 9 a.m., to hear interviews with the Big Easy Roller Girls.

Finally, (fellow GB fan) Maitri and I are at last disposing of our recycle collections. You can too, at the Green Project.

And it was thanks to Maitri that an impromptu 3rd Geek Dinner was organized around a visit by Earthlink blogger Dave Coustan. I may have more to say about this in the future, but let me just point out for the record — as one who hates BellSouth and Cox — that the prospect of Earthlink’s high-speed wireless network throughout New Orleans is not just a source of personal joy, it represents a desperately-needed positive sign for New Orleans. I hope Earthlink recognizes that this isn’t just a good business opportunity, but is in fact a highly-marketable and prestigious gesture of good will. We are fortunate that EarthLink has given us this gift, to help us raise our outlooks a little, and I’m sure it will be rewarded for its investment when people in New Orleans and around the country come to understand and appreciate EarthLink’s good gesture.

Related:

New Orleans, 1 A.K.

C. Ray Nagin: Katrina Boneless Chicken

Louisiana blog revolt spotlighted in The Nation

Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America’s Wetland | We Are Not OK | Rebuild New Orleans | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Ray Nagin | Recall Ray Nagin | Hurricane Katrina One Year Anniversary

5.625% mortgage interest in New Orleans

Stacy Head sent out an email reporting that The Finance Authority of New Orleans is offering:

… mortgage interest rates as low as 5.625%. Our home mortgage loan program is designed to help you renovate your home, purchase a new home, or purchase and renovate an existing home in Orleans Parish. This mortgage loan program is not limited to the first-time homebuyer and is available for all income groups. All of our loans are 30 year fixed rate mortgages.

C. Ray Nagin: Katrina Boneless Chicken

100 day report? What? Too little, too late, Mr. Mayor!

I thought the BNOB process was dead. So what’s this? You’re celebrating something that failed? And now you’re claiming that you “stated [a] commitment to protect … citizen’s rights to return and rebuild”? How? How exactly are you going to do this when you keep saying that the market should decide which neighborhoods will rebuild? That’s the equivalent of Roosevelt saying after Pearl Harbor that “the market” should decide what to do about Hirohito.

Are you now taking credit for the whole ball of wax — from one failure to the next, leading from the BNOB process, to independent neighborhood plans, to the UNOP process? Wow! You are such a visionary to have guided us through your blundering failures to finally accomplish what you wanted to achieve from the very beginning! Oh mysterious planning guru, how else might we be enlightened to your wisdom? What miracles might now unfold to save our dear city?

What’s this? Now that we’ve waited 100 days to find out what your plans were, we have to wait for another 100 days for implementation? Shit man — it’ll be another year before you actually accomplish anything that might make a difference to hundreds of thousands of citizens still looking for hope that the city is turning the corner!

Your comment that things are better now than they were 100 days ago is about as inspiring a pronouncement as a flounder hitting a flat-bottom boat.

No, Mr. Mayor, what citizens of New Orleans should really be asking is, “Is what the mayor is doing good enough?”

This has been a long time coming! Ray Nagin — you are now awarded the People Get Ready Katrina Boneless Chicken award for astoundingly low levels of leadership and achievement as the Mayor of New Orleans. As a leader before Hurricane Katrina, I wouldn’t have given you more than a C- grade. As a leader since Hurricane Katrina, I’d give a clear F for failing to do your homework, failing to turn in your reports to citizens in a timely manner, and for taking credit for other people’s work.

Good riddance! I’ll be actively collecting signatures for your recall on election day later this month.

Related:

PGR — Do you believe in the tooth fairy?

G Bitch — One Year and 15 Days Later

VatulBlog — A Few Words With Ray Nagin (should be titled “A Few Words From Ray Nagin”)

Wet Bank Guide — Perdido Street and Agincourt

Adrastos — Spin City Version 2.1

Moldy City — Kudos to the Mayor

TP Editorial — Nagin’s 100 days

Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America’s Wetland | We Are Not OK | Rebuild New Orleans | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Ray Nagin | Recall Ray Nagin | Hurricane Katrina One Year Anniversary | UNOP | Unified New Orleans Plan | Steven Bingler | Concordia

Who’s winning the “wah on terrah”?

Preznit Boneless Chickenhawk on the fifth September 11th observance since 2001:

The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.

Really?

It’s an impossible task. The American people were told that the United States was going to war against Iraq to seize Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons, which never existed in the first place, and to be greeted as liberators, which lasted for about five minutes as a staged act for the cameras, in which American troops pulled down a statue of Saddam for cheering Iraqis waving suspiciously outdated Iraqi flags.

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden is howling with laughter in a cave somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan, because Boneless Chickenhawk got our soldiers bogged down in a religious civil war instead of paying attention to the real threats to our transportation network and our people.

Bush forgot. Recall what he had to say about the deaths of over 3000 Americans, and his progress in pursuing their murderer, Osama bin Laden, just six months after September 11th, at a White House Press Conference in 2002:

I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him.

New York Times conservative columnist John Tierney:

As an act of war, the attack on Sept. 11 was a blunder by Al Qaeda, and not merely because of the counterattack that destroyed Al Qaeda’s training camps and ousted the Taliban. It also alienated former jihadist allies in the Arab world, and caused a rift within Al Qaeda. …

Instead of declaring victory against terrorists after routing the Taliban and sending bin Laden into hiding, [the Bush administration] invaded Iraq, reinvigorating Al Qaeda with a new tool for recruiting. Instead of putting the terrorist risk in perspective, Bush (with the full cooperation of Democrats and the press) set an impossible standard for making America safe. …

When you treat one attack from a disorganized band of fanatics as a menace to civilization, you’ve doomed yourself to defeat and caused more damage than they could. You can’t completely stop terrorism, but you can scare people into giving up liberties, wasting huge sums of money and sacrificing more lives than would be lost in a terrorist attack.

Take it from bin Laden, who bragged in 2004 that it was “easy to provoke and bait this administration.”

“All that we have to do,” he said, “is to send two mujahedeen to the farthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written Al Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses.”

I thought the slightly out-of-context Gandhi quote I posted yesterday might elicit more comment. I was reminded, however, of another Gandhi quote:

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.

I don’t believe that a commitment to non-violence, and non-cooperation with evil, are irreconciliable. Murderers must be removed from the world, and murdering organizations must be dismantled. Killing more innocent people only makes more murderers, especially when done not in the name of fighting terrorists, but for empire. Bush has only created more terrorists — which, of course, serves the interests of his patrons who seek perpetual war for perpetual profit.

Everyone should recall the outpouring of international support the United States received after September 11th, and how it was squandered by Bush when he stridently told the world he didn’t need anyone’s help in Afghanistan, and when he later rushed to war in Iraq on false pretenses to gain access to the oil fields for his friends in the business. Instead of turning the September 11th attacks into an opening for the United States to destroy terrorism by seeking international cooperation, Bush alienated the world by pre-emptively striking another nation to seize her resources, terrorizing and slaying tens of thousands of her citizens in the process, as well as thousands of Americans.

Who now has more blood on his hands? Bin Laden, or Bush? Hiding (as he always has) behind the American military bureaucracy doesn’t exonerate Bush from his culpability for murder.

Besides squandering lives and treasure in Iraq, Bush still isn’t addressing more pressing needs here in the United States. Sounds pretty much like a repeat of Vietnam.

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.

Related:

Right back atchya Dubya!

Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America’s Wetland | Bush is a moron | Impeach Bush | George W Bush | Bush | Worst President Ever | Iraq | Al Qaeda | Osama bin Laden | Terrorism | Rebuild New Orleans | We Are Not OK | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Katrina One Year Anniversary

Who’s winning the “wah on terrah”?

Preznit Boneless Chickenhawk on the fifth September 11th observance since 2001:

The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.

Really?

It’s an impossible task. The American people were told that the United States was going to war against Iraq to seize Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons, which never existed in the first place, and to be greeted as liberators, which lasted for about five minutes as a staged act for the cameras, in which American troops pulled down a statue of Saddam for cheering Iraqis waving suspiciously outdated Iraqi flags.

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden is howling with laughter in a cave somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan, because Boneless Chickenhawk got our soldiers bogged down in a religious civil war instead of paying attention to the real threats to our transportation network and our people.

Bush forgot. Recall what he had to say about the deaths of over 3000 Americans, and his progress in pursuing their murderer, Osama bin Laden, just six months after September 11th, at a White House Press Conference in 2002:

I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him.

New York Times conservative columnist John Tierney:

As an act of war, the attack on Sept. 11 was a blunder by Al Qaeda, and not merely because of the counterattack that destroyed Al Qaeda’s training camps and ousted the Taliban. It also alienated former jihadist allies in the Arab world, and caused a rift within Al Qaeda. …

Instead of declaring victory against terrorists after routing the Taliban and sending bin Laden into hiding, [the Bush administration] invaded Iraq, reinvigorating Al Qaeda with a new tool for recruiting. Instead of putting the terrorist risk in perspective, Bush (with the full cooperation of Democrats and the press) set an impossible standard for making America safe. …

When you treat one attack from a disorganized band of fanatics as a menace to civilization, you’ve doomed yourself to defeat and caused more damage than they could. You can’t completely stop terrorism, but you can scare people into giving up liberties, wasting huge sums of money and sacrificing more lives than would be lost in a terrorist attack.

Take it from bin Laden, who bragged in 2004 that it was “easy to provoke and bait this administration.”

“All that we have to do,” he said, “is to send two mujahedeen to the farthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written Al Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses.”

I thought the slightly out-of-context Gandhi quote I posted yesterday might elicit more comment. I was reminded, however, of another Gandhi quote:

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.

I don’t believe that a commitment to non-violence, and non-cooperation with evil, are irreconciliable. Murderers must be removed from the world, and murdering organizations must be dismantled. Killing more innocent people only makes more murderers, especially when done not in the name of fighting terrorists, but for empire. Bush has only created more terrorists — which, of course, serves the interests of his patrons who seek perpetual war for perpetual profit.

Everyone should recall the outpouring of international support the United States received after September 11th, and how it was squandered by Bush when he stridently told the world he didn’t need anyone’s help in Afghanistan, and when he later rushed to war in Iraq on false pretenses to gain access to the oil fields for his friends in the business. Instead of turning the September 11th attacks into an opening for the United States to destroy terrorism by seeking international cooperation, Bush alienated the world by pre-emptively striking another nation to seize her resources, terrorizing and slaying tens of thousands of her citizens in the process, as well as thousands of Americans.

Who now has more blood on his hands? Bin Laden, or Bush? Hiding (as he always has) behind the American military bureaucracy doesn’t exonerate Bush from his culpability for murder.

Besides squandering lives and treasure in Iraq, Bush still isn’t addressing more pressing needs here in the United States. Sounds pretty much like a repeat of Vietnam.

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.

Related:

Right back atchya Dubya!

Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America’s Wetland | Bush is a moron | Impeach Bush | George W Bush | Bush | Worst President Ever | Iraq | Al Qaeda | Osama bin Laden | Terrorism | Rebuild New Orleans | We Are Not OK | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Katrina One Year Anniversary

Photos: Ms. Regina yard clearing

You know the “old” expression about finding new muscles? I’m afraid it applies to me, after spending the day clearing Ms. Regina’s yard with Big Easy Roller Girls, Arabi Wrecking Krewe volunteer Jon Kardon, and New Orleans bloggers G Bitch, Alan, Karen and Ashley. But they’re good muscles, and I hope to keep them in shape, because helping others is good for the heart muscle, and good for that smaller muscle I have inside my head.

The Big Easy Roller Girls get a big hug. They simply showed up and quietly went to work without asking for instruction, thanks, or recognition. They didn’t ask, but I’ll plug them anyway — they’re having their first roller derby bout this coming Saturday at Mardi Gras World. I’ll definitely be there to support them.

I’m humbled by the dedication of everyone who showed up to work, sweat, and (sorry Karen and Smasher) fend off stinging wasps! So is Ms. Regina, who called me yesterday to express her profound appreciation for having her prayers answered.

I want to single out Jason Goodman for the hero-of-the-day award. Had Jason not shown up with his landscaping business power tools, I doubt we could have made much progress hacking our way through that jungle of Katrina overgrowth with our dull machetes. And then, after everyone else was ready to call it quits, Jason went off and finished 5 — yes, 5 — other jobs he had scheduled for the day. Jason — I still owe you pizza and beer. Jason has been playing guitar around town for years, and more recently, can be found onstage with The Bruisers, and A Clockwork Elvis.

Before:

After:

After:

After:

After — Jason (a true professional) puts the creative touch on the job by cleaning up the ornamental bush next to the house:

More photos.

Related:

New Orleans, 1 A.K.

9/09/2006 Community Gumbo — The Arabi Wrecking Krewe

7/29/2006 Community Gumbo — The Big Easy Roller Girls: Through Hell and High Water

9-11-1906: Remember

“Violence will prevail over violence, only when someone can prove to me that darkness can be dispelled by darkness.” - Mahatma Gandhi

9-11 is the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement for truth, justice, and peaceful change.

So much different could have been the response of our government after 9-11-2001, and after 8-29-2005, if we had elected different people to lead our nation.

Arun Gandhi, interviewed on Democracy Now:

And people were wondering, how can we resist with the state so powerful, and we don’t have any weapons, you know, because every time, even today, when somebody talks about resistance, everybody thinks in terms of weapons and war and fighting. And that’s when grandfather explained to them that we don’t need any weapons of mass destruction. We have the ability to respond to this nonviolently and with self-suffering. And that’s what he encouraged the people to do. And they came out into the streets with love for the enemy. You know, grandfather didn’t tolerate any hate for the enemy or any anger for the enemy. He said nonviolence has to be complete nonviolence. We have to have love and respect for the enemy, and that is the only way we can overcome them. And that’s what he showed in his work.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America’s Wetland | Bush is a moron | Impeach Bush | George W Bush | Bush | Worst President Ever | Rebuild New Orleans | We Are Not OK | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Katrina One Year Anniversary

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