I really won't have time to post much for awhile

...but since Houston has suddenly turned into the confluence of the two events focusing the nation's attention, I thought I'd better tell you what I'll be up to:

-- I'll be attending the first stop of the Bring Them Home Now Tour Thursday evening, with Cindy Sheehan and the veterans and their families, so I'll have some thoughts on that combined with my still-unposted Camp Casey report; and...

-- I'll be volunteering to assist the Katrina refugees at the Astrodome this weekend.

So if you don't see anything posted here until next Monday, you'll know why.

Some suffer, some don't

"The city of New Orleans is devastated."

"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet...

Both airports are under water. The twin spans are destroyed. The yacht club is burned and destroyed."

-- New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, from an interview with WWL late last night

Mayor Nagin said that it is possible that the highrise bridge in east New Orleans could be unstable. "All of Slidell, and most of Metairie is under water". Nagin also stated that "there was no clear path in and out of New Orleans," and that I-10 is under water.

CNN also quoted a spokesperson from the hospital associated with Tulane University in downtown, who said that they were moving all of the patients from the hospital due to water standing six feet deep in the first floor and rising at the rate of one inch every five minutes. She said white water was pouring down Canal Street (which would be from the breach in the levee at the 17th St. canal at Lake Ponchartrain).

Nagin: "An oil tanker has run aground and oil is leaking from it. Hundreds of 9th Ward residents have been rescued from the roofs of their homes. Undoubtedly hundreds of people throughout the city will have lost their lives."

Duty calls

so my post on Camp Casey will have to wait. In the meantime you can read Lyn's account here.

Besides, the residents of New Orleans are on my mind this morning. Booman had previously dug this out from 2004:

The worst-case scenario here - a direct strike by a full-strength Hurricane Ivan - could submerge much of this historic city treetop-deep in a stew of sewage, industrial chemicals and fire ants, and the inundation could last for weeks, experts say.

* * *

New Orleans would be under about 20 feet of water, higher than the roofs of many of the city's homes. Besides collecting standard household and business garbage and chemicals, the flood would flow through chemical plants in the area, "so there's the potential of pretty severe contamination," van Heerden said.

Severe flooding in bayous also forces out wildlife, including poisonous snakes and stinging fire ants, which sometimes gather in floating balls carried by currents.

Much of the city would be under water for weeks. And even after the river and Lake Pontchartrain receded, the levees could trap water above sea level, meaning the Army Corps of Engineers would have to cut the levees to let the water out.

And this from a recent NWS warning (they're yelling, so I would take them seriously):

HURRICANE KATRINA A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE. HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS ...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

PastorDan put this up also at Booman Tribune -- and there's more at the link -- in order to keep the Big Easyians foremost in our thoughts...

In honor of the City of Saints, an Invocation of the Saints:

• Bridegroom of poverty, our brother Francis, follower of Jesus and friend of creation:
  Stand here beside us.

• John XXIII, Pope and friend of the poor, who longed for the unity of all people:
  Stand here beside us.

• Peacemakers in the world, Dag Hammarskjold and Desmond Tutu, called children of God:
  Stand here beside us.

• Mask of the Christ, Gautama the Buddha, and Mother Teresa,
  Stand here beside us.

How does my ass look?

Up even earlier than usual

...in order to leave for Crawford and Camp Casey in about an hour.

Words and pictures about today will appear here tomorrow.

What is Tom DeLay doing now?

He's posing with Elvis at a nursing home -- err, campaigning in his district.

Go read this absolutely hilarious post at In the Pink Texas.





Their snark, and that of their commenters, is the best ever of late.

Update (8/28) : Charles Kuffner has a more polite take.

Last night's Daily Show interview

with Christopher Hitchens is now available for your viewing at Crooks and Liars.

You've heard it about it, you've read about it, now you can see it for yourself.

Prairie Weather links to the Texas Observer's in-depth expose' of the tangled web of connections binding the GOP together -- that's a must-click, by the way -- and adds this:

This is a big article about a big mess and these are only the opening paragraphs.

Bottom line: a real investigation, which McCain and the Indian Affairs Committee is supposed to hold, would pull down too many "key" figures in the Republican Party and (worse?) cut off big funding sources.

Now are we motivated to change the color of the Senate and House in 2006?

Well, if we are, we shouldn't count on any help from the SCLM; Editor and Publisher points to the Los Angeles Times piece that shows how the editors of TIME magazine sat on the Plame-Rove-Matthew Cooper disclosures because they did not want to influence the 2004 election:

The article details conversations involving Karl Rove, "Scooter" Libby, Matt Cooper and Robert Novak. But near its conclusion it raises an emerging issue, promoted by Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair, among others: If Time magazine had gone public about Rove's conversations with Cooper, it might have had some impact on the Bush - Kerry race for the White House last year.

Not until this summer did Cooper ask Rove for a waiver to talk to the grand jury, and ultimately the public, about their conversation. The L.A. Times article today notes that he did not do this before “because his lawyer advised against it.” But the reporters add that in addition, “Time editors were concerned about becoming part of such an explosive story in an election year.”

The story concludes: "The result was that Cooper's testimony was delayed nearly a year, well after Bush's reelection."

That worked out well for everyone, didn't it?

Billmon is yelling

...is anybody listening?

Some stories are so obvious that I fool myself into thinking the facts will speak for themselves. I forget that we don't live in that kind of world any more (if we ever did) and that amensia is no longer just a chronic condition for the corporate media but also a willful one.

So, to drive the point of my last post home a little harder, let me summarize:

The White House propaganda maestros used an Iraqi women's rights activist as a living prop at Shrub's state of the union address earlier this year, whipping wingnut war hawks and media dingdongs alike into a frenzy of teary-eyed patriotism. They also arranged for her to stand immediately in front of the mother of a Marine killed in action in Iraq -- setting the scene for a "spontaneous" hug that reduced a national television audience to quivering lumps of sentimental jello and left Joe Klein spitting phlegm-coated bile at the Democratic Party.

Now, that very same activist is telling the world the Americans just sold her, and her Iraqi sisters, down the river to a bunch of medieval mullahs with Made-in-Tehran labels on the insides of their turbans.

Will her betrayal simply be pushed down the media memory hole with yesterday's garbage? Are we really that far gone?

Camp Casey Day 6

brainshrub has another report:

As usual, I am writing from the back of the tent at "Camp Casey II" on a borrowed laptop via wi-fi connection. I don't know if I'll ever want to blog indoors again. Something about being outside while surfing the internet makes blogging seem like a miracle.

I have just been handed a half-melted ice cream sandwich; I'm typing with one hand and munching cold vanilla bliss with the other. Ice cream at the end of a hot, Texas day is the most glorious food in the world.

###

People who have been here awhile will mark the number of days they have been here on their nametags. It's the closest thing to rank that anyone has around here.

Ann Wright, the closest thing to a "leader" here, can be seen walking around with her head still wet from a shower, helping to do dishes and giving administrative advice to the Peace House.

###

I've sweat so hard today that there are wide salt-marks on my shirt. Most of the day has been spent the day running around as an assistant to Rebecca Mac Neice.

Rebecca is a joy to work with. She is the only professional videographer here who has camped out full-time and developed a good relationship with both sides of the Iraqi War. The raw footage is so damn good, I'll be amazed if she doesn't win awards for it.

###

I'm a bit surprised about how few liberal media organizations are represented here. Considering how much they are praising the activities of Cindy Sheehan, you'd think they'd bankroll a few reporters to write from here. DemocracyNow left days ago, AAR is nowhere to be seen and the only person still broadcasting live with any regularity is Brad's radio show.

My regular site has gotten so many hits, that people are staring to sent me emails thanking me for blogging and helping give the Peace Movement a vehicle. IMHO bloggers are getting too much credit for covering the event. The only hard-core bloggers I've meet here so far are myself, TruthOut and BradBlog. There are rumors that Markos Moulitsas from the Daily Kos is here, but I haven't seen him.

The real force behind the media coverage are the common citizens here who are writing letters, urging friends to contact their congresspeople, and taking telephone calls from media organizations too lazy to send a reporter to do it in person.

Case in point: The only major publication I've meet in the six days I've been here is Eric Pfeiffer, a columnist for the National Review. Let me repeat what I just wrote just in case you think I'm kidding: A columnist for The National Review.

What this means is that resistance to the Iraq war is not being driven by progressive media or by bloggers. It's organic and much more mainstream than anyone cares to admit.

There is no attempt to coordinate the message by IVAW, Gold Star Mothers for Peace, MoveOn, Not In Our Name or Code Pink. It's all being done organically by common citizens. Bloggers and indie-media bloggers are spreading the information fast, but we aren't driving it.

More, including comments, here.

I'll be heading that way to spend a day this weekend.

Two of ours come out swinging

As the situation in Iraq deteriorates almost as quickly as the price of gas rises and the President's poll numbers fall, two of the Texas Democratic candidates yesterday broadsided their GOP incumbent opponents for their respective failings.

David Van Os writes under the headline "Yearning to Breathe Free"(emphasis mine):

An August 22 story in the Austin American-Statesman describes the plight of immigrant workers who perform some of the most laborious jobs in our economy yet have difficulty obtaining the pay they have earned for their work. (“The power of shame pays off; public vigil helps migrants claim money owed to them,” Austin American-Statesman, Asher Price, 8-22-05; link above req. reg.)

Under state law the Texas Attorney General has the power to come down hard against unscrupulous employers who exploit low-wage immigrant workers by refusing to pay such workers for work they have performed. Suits by the Attorney General to obtain injunctions and to assess the stiff monetary penalties provided by Texas payday laws would quickly get the attention of employers who unlawfully refuse to pay their workers and would deter other employers from similar conduct.

The immortal words on our Statue of Liberty proclaim, “Give me your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” We are mostly a nation of immigrants who came and whose ancestors came to this land fleeing injustice and seeking the breath of liberty. The exceptions, such as those who are descended from victims of the African slave trade and those whose ancestors were incorporated into the nation under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, nevertheless often take lead positions in our nation’s pursuit of freedom and justice for all. No human being can “breathe free” if unable to purchase the necessities of life as a result of laboring without just compensation. The 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is uncompromising in its permanent prohibition of involuntary servitude as a fundamental value of the American social covenant.

The Texas Legislature meant what it said when it enacted laws against non-payment of wages with stern penalties assessable through suit by the Attorney General. While the current Republican Attorney General politically grandstands over a Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol Grounds, he ignores the biblical injunction that "You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers.” The Republican Attorney General should move quickly on this issue, but he will not do so because it would interfere with the immigrant-bashing philosophy of his radical political base. It is a terrible shame that enforcement of the laws of Texas on behalf of the working poor will have to wait until I am sworn in as Attorney General in January 2007; but when that time comes, enforcement will arrive swiftly and aggressively on behalf of not only immigrants but all Texas workers, regardless of background or status, who are victimized by such unjust and unscrupulous labor practices.

And then Barbara Radnofsky smacks down KBH with this:

Recent news reports showed that Senator Hutchison has abandoned the issues on which she based her announcement to seek re-election, choosing to focus on three issues our campaign identified: veterans? affairs, education, and health care. She has crawfished on a variety of issues our campaign raised.

* She has flip-flopped on veterans affairs after a series of speeches and press releases from our campaign, and has finally called for a VA Hospital south of San Antonio, after months of my campaigning for such a facility.

* She has flip-flopped after her abandonment of her Constitutional obligation of Advise and Consent, and is now calling for Senate vetting of Supreme Court appointees, after her prompt rubberstamping of the President's nomination and her immediate call on her colleagues to ensure the nomination.

* She wrongly claims to be supportive of health care when in fact she voted against the bipartisan Bingaman-Smith amendment that restored Medicaid funding cut from Texas. After the last eleven years of rubberstamping and failed leadership, Texas now leads the nation in percentage of uninsured children and adults. She now parrots our campaigns call for insurance reform. We call on her to echo our call for prompt pay and preventive care.

* She wrongly claims to support education, while on her watch Texas has achieved the lowest high school graduation rate in the U.S. We call on her to echo our recommendations for mediation and full funding for grants for higher education.

* She has proudly touted her role in passage of the transportation bill. We call on her to concede that the transportation formulas in the bill that she rubberstamped have harmed Texans, sending our hard-earned Texas dollars out of state so that we can build needless construction projects in Alaska.

It sure will be nice to have real leaders in Austin and Washington for a change, won't it?

We ALL need two