Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: September 04, 2005 - September 10, 2005 Archives: "from the WSJ: 'Ten U.S. Army recruiters are offering volunteer help for Katrina evacuees at Houston's Astrodome. But the recruiters, struggling to keep enlistment up during Iraq war, are also available with options for the jobless. 'Our intent is to approach the evacuees at the right time for them,'' says Army spokesman Douglas Smith.'
"

Evelyn J. Pringle: Douglas Feith's Platinum Parachute War Pays

Air Force Times - News - More News: "Federal emergency officials are directing hurricane-aid supplies to areas where they aren't needed, an Air Force official says, and the result is a backup at Little Rock Air Force Base of shipments of international aid intended for Hurricane Katrina victims in the Gulf Coast region."

POLITICS-US: A Hyperpower With Feet of Mud: "Its technology may be second to none, but, in the hands of hopelessly incompetent, unaccountable and, in some cases, clearly corrupt politicians and their cronies, it can provide neither adequate supplies of electricity to 24 million Iraqis two years after taking control of Baghdad, nor adequate supplies of food, clean water, sanitation, transportation or shelter to hundreds of thousands of its own citizens within just a few days of a major natural disaster."

The Telegraph Online "Many Sept. 11 loans went to those who didn’t need them."

TIME.com: How Reliable Is Brown's Resume? It's not.

Brown's bio on FEMA.gov
Brown was never an "assistant city manager" nor was he ever a "professor."

Attytood: "How do you know that we're finally taking the situation in New Orleans seriously? We're sending in the private mercenaries"

The Black Commentator - Unbearable Crime on the Mississippi - Issue 149 - September 8 2005: "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....And the developers are probably asking for eminent domain to be declared even as I'm typing."

Yahoo helped Chinese to prosecute journalist: printer friendly version: "Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and other major Internet service and equipment providers have come under scrutiny for helping China to monitor and censor content available to China's 100 million Internet users."

Welcome to WorkingForChange The War on Weather

Project Censored

Oil-for-Food Panel Rebukes Annan, Cites Corruption: "It also accused U.S. officials of approving 'the single largest episode of oil smuggling' out of Iraq, by Jordan, in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The United States and Jordan declined Volcker's requests for interviews and documents, the report said, saying his panel had no authority to investigate oil smuggling outside the oil-for-food program."

Letting Predatory Lending Back Out of Its Cage: Federal, State Officials Warn That Federal Bill Would Weaken Protections in States: "Ney-Kanjorski Bill Would Roll Back State Protections for Consumers, Spur New Abuses"

AlterNet: The Bigotry of Low Expectations: "As Katrina wiped out New Orleans' communications infrastructure, panicky rumors of violence in evacuation centers quickly filled the airwaves. The only problem--few of the reports were true. "

West 'Registers' No. 1 Album Debut The Dixie Chicks effect.
Also the top album download on iTunes yesterday and today.

Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are Reprimanded - New York Times: "In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, 'So Others May Live.'"

Hurricane KATRINANWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
4 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA HEADED FOR THE
NORTHERN GULF COAST...
PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS EVENING....
COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED. SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.

Totally unexpected.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Breaking News Weblog: "Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, 'We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.'

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, 'You're doing a heck of a job.'

That's unbelievable."

That's our Bush.

CBC News: Race issue haunts President Bush in his response to Katrina

White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage - New York Times: "In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove's tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats. "
"White House political operation had fallen short in part because the president and his aides were scattered outside Washington on vacation, leaving no one obviously in charge"
Where's Al Haig when you need him?