Year: 2005

  • Call Me a Shabbas Goy, But…

    This kind of thing turns my stomach: rove was just singing to the choir– curious group of people, look at the names alot of Jews must have been a strategy session I found it on the Huffington Post in a thread on off-the-record remarks by Karl Rove. The post, which I’ve quoted in full, is…

  • David Brooks can go to Hell or New Orleans

    His choice–for saying “We have to think about whether we want to rebuild New Orleans” on the (Lehrer) News Hour this afternoon. Whaddya mean “we” Mr. Smarty Pundit?! Like, if a hurricane had destroyed Washington D.C. there would be a vote to decide whether or not it was wise to rebuild the nation’s capitol in…

  • New Orleans will rise again

    I even think there will be a Mardi Gras, but this is some good news (from The Times-Picayune): The 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will go on by Zack Smith “There will be a Jazzfest. We are committed to putting on the 2006 Jazz and Heritage Festival, whatever that may take,” said Quint…

  • Still somewhat slow on the uptake

    Mike Brown took the hint, finally, and resigned as FEMA director. Look for him to receive the Medal of Freedom in a few months. Fortunately, Skeletor… er, I mean Chertoff is still firmly in control of Homeland Security.

  • Charlie Parker jams

    Driving back to my office on 101 North from Santa Clara I hit the button for KCSM and caught most of “Jam Blues” by Charlie Parker and an all-star crew. I’m going to have to get me that record. It was a perfect California moment, sailing up the freeway with Bird blowing in my ear.…

  • Katrina PeopleFinder project

    Over the long weekend I witnessed a flurry of email messages from the network of activist techies and techie activists I’m connected to since the Dean campaign and the work on this book. Some of this coalesced into the PeopleFinder project to help cross-correlate all the missing persons and I’m OK data being gathered across…

  • Dispatch: A friend

    Another email from a friend — this one anonymous — that I thought worth sharing here: i’ve been wondering about the media folks and their bursts of honesty and anger about bush–like you said, even fox has them, but also it’s coming from middle-of-the-roaders like brooks and some republican politicians too. it is sorta extraordinary,…

  • Dispatch: Heroic Imp

    Earlier today, my pal Heroic Imp sent me this chilling vision of the future I thought was worth sharing: New Orleans has one of the world’s greatest international ports, one of the largest in the nation, and it is a major focus of the city’s economy. New Orleans is home to the corporate offices of…

  • A Little Understanding, Please…

    Aside from the very slight chances of a hurricane and a flood occurring coincidentally, planners had to identify and assign personnel according to their skills. It must be remembered: –Every hurricane or flood is different. Some call for public-safety skills, boats and sandbagging, while others require clockmakers and paleontologists. –The records had to be, by…

  • Is the national guard stopping aid from getting in to New Orleans?

    That’s the word on indymedia.org and getyouracton.com. One show-stopping excerpt: Also heard that part of the reason our house flooded is they dynamited part of the levee after the first section broke – they did this to prevent Uptown (the rich part of town) from being flooded. Apparently they used too much dynamite, thus flooding…

  • Donate to Habitat for Humanity

    Help Hurricane Victims Rebuild Their Lives The situation on the Gulf Coast is grave. Reports of devastation are staggering. Thousands of families are left homeless or with homes that are severely damaged. Katrina was nothing short of catastrophic–especially for families in low-income housing and mobile home parks. In a disaster like this, families who were…

  • What took so long

    Can anyone verify the following assertions (from a mailing list I’m on)? Halliburton hired for storm cleanup 01 Sep 2005: The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. & Roof Installation Newton repair roofs, restore electric power and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform…

  • Government by photo-op

    Is this really the best way to help the relief effort? It goes to show how overwhelming things are here right now that I encountered the First Lady yesterday and I almost forgot to put it in this e-mail. It actually couldn’t have been a worse experience; a team of us were working to put…

  • At loose ends

    B landed safely in London and sent me email from her hosts there. I’ll call her mom and dad today to let them know she got there ok and has had a chance to rest and relax before her strenuous trip to Sicily. (Pout.) I’ve been watching a bunch of movies that I don’t think…

  • In my room

    I started off the long weekend right by seeing Brian Wilson’s crack band (orchestra?) perform a long show with the entire SMiLE album nestled in its middle. They let us out of work early, which was nice, and I met up with my friends Non and Roo and Non’s brother Bob for some Japanese food…

  • FEMA Chief Brown: An Unqualified Success

    Talking Points Memo on the qualifications of FEMA chief Michael Brown (aka “Brownie”): The news out today about FEMA Director Michael Brown tells the ugly tale. So let’s just review what we now know — with key new details first from a diarist at DailyKos and now confirmed in more depth in this morning’s Boston…

  • Sympathy for the FEMA

    “In Louisiana’s capital, Baton Rouge, the head of FEMA, Michael D. Brown said power outages, rising waters and violence by looters and others shooting at rescuers had complicated relief efforts.” .-LA Times How is FEMA supposed to function effectively under these kind of adverse conditions? Rising waters! Power outages! Looters! Who can be expected plan…

  • Deep Thinker at the Helm

    And they say his imagination is limited… …in Air Force One. Turning to his aides, he said: “It’s totally wiped out. … It’s devastating, it’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.” (Newsweek)

  • Looting

    Have you been watching Fox and Fox type TV this past couple of days? Their coverage of the looting is making me insane. Poor people who’ve lost everything, even lost the city they were poor in, stealing food, stealing clothes, stealing TVs, I really don’t care. Who are we to judge them? Who is the…

  • Yes, I get sophomoric when I vent.

    President Bush has announced his first priority response to the disaster in New Orleans has been to head off flooding in all major waterways surrounding Crawford, Texas. “We are not about to fall back into a passive, reactive, defensive strategy on this. If we do not fight flooding in Crawford today, we will be fighting…

  • Action Movies–History of Advanced Fighting Techniques

    As far back as Blade Runner it was already well established that the fastest way to cross a room was by a sequence of rapidly repeated back flips. Bit it was only in the Matrix films we learned that bullets cannot harm you as long as you are engaged in tumbling exercises of any kind.