Katrina's POLITICAL aftermath (keep the political discussions HERE)

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They mentioned this on Marketplace today, and of course had a quote from Grover "Somebody's probably gunna cap me soon" Norquist about how this was a good thing. There was no expiration date placed on the suspension, so companies could pay as little as they wanted to for as long as they wanted to. Grover: "They can save millions of dollars for the taxpayer this way..." etc

Come on, this reads like a bad game of telephone. "someone told someone else who just told me" etc without verifying anything as being from an eyewitness or a knowledgeable expert... "hearing bomb sounds" (Have these people ever even heard a bomb? How different does it sound from, say, concrete bursting from water pressure?) And again, this seems wildly implausible, to say the least, given the Army Corps of Engineer's resources and the kind of work they do. They are not the 101st Airborne.

And yes, BushCo has removed minimum wage in the affected areas. I read a few articles about it- let me see if I can find one...

Substitute the Ninth Ward for South Central and I don't find this brand of urban warfare surprising at all.

The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931 during the Great Depression, sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages. Many Republicans have opposed Davis-Bacon, charging that it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to unions.

yeah - looting, "stealing" food, clothes, whatever, hey I got no problem with that. Shooting doctors, raping children - uh, that's NEVER cool. And clearly they're the acts of people who figure they aren't gonna live much longer and they're already delirious and angry and out of their minds so hey, may as well do all that crazy shit they always thought about doing.

i know, but it still isn't cool.

what the FUCK is going on in this country?

God do i hope they hang for this. Figuratively or metaphorically.

Two websites have been established to support the cause: www.campkatrina.org and www.bushville.org

So now we have "Lake George" and "Bushville". Hmm.

http://presstheissue.org/music/MosDef-Dollar_Day_for_New_Oreleans...Katrina_Klap.mp3

It was heartening, though, a couple performances earlier, to see Kanye West still at it. When he interjected that little rap about the people getting left at the Superdome into "Jesus Walks," I said YEAH! Right fuckin' on, Kanye!

It's wonderful to see him continuing to speak out against the crimes perpetrated on the people of Louisiana and Mississippi by the Bush Admin. (And on this awesome thread! You guys have been great with all the info, links and reportage. Thank you!) Those heartless motherfuckers need to pay. I don't think I've ever been so heartbroken or angry in my entire life.

depends. if the current ruling party has it their way, the "what we did right" parts will come out around mardi gras, and the "what we did wrong" parts will coming out in december 2006, if ever.

-- Eisbär (llamasfu...), September 10th, 2005. (tracklink)

Ha, that response is fucking awesome. My jaw always drops when I hear the argument that "the person who needs it more will pay more for it." You might as well say "Let the customers fight for it. The person who values it more will fight harder."

1) Karen Hughes's and others' attempts to shift the blame to the looters. Are there a small minority of people who are actually doing really heinous shit like robbing the crippled, committing rape, etc.? Yes, obviously. Are they responsible for their actions? Fucking goes without saying. But whose fault is it that there's been no order of any kind in the city? Who permitted this to happen? Does a real leader hold a press conference and say "Sorry, I know we have a crime problem, but it's all these criminals that are causing it, not me!"

2) The blame rolling off Bush like mercury and the "blame game" canard -- as though we've forgotten who makes appointments in this government. It's not like Bush didn't know before that Brown was a failed horse lawyer, a man for whom the only disaster he had ever had to deal with was his own career.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee yesterday sent links to a Houston Chronicle blogger who had watched House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) tour the Astrodome, where children evacuated from New Orleans were playing. The blog reported that DeLay "likened their stay to being at camp and asked, 'Now, tell me the truth, boys, is this kind of fun?' " The blogger said the youngsters "nodded yes, but looked perplexed."

...But now that the death toll from Katrina is threatening the inviolable aura of "3000 dead," rightwingers are playing their own form of hopscotch to put things in "proper perspective." They recognize they're in danger of losing a mass grave marker on the high moral ground.

Today, James S. Robbins pulled a Mailer on NRO, using not automobile accidents but a household item found in every medicine cabinet as his point of comparison...

in reference to Norman Mailer noting that far more people die in auto accidents every year than on 9/11, and then getting overwhelmed in attacks for that observation.

...In any event, whatever the wisdom of Brown’s appointment in hindsight, firing him now would be an admission that FEMA performed poorly in the current crisis--an assertion that is constantly repeated, but for which I have seen, at this point, little hard evidence. There will be time enough for sorting out, in a rational environment, the pros and cons of FEMA’s efforts; firing Brown now would accomplish nothing but to uselessly fan the flames of hysteria.

Basically, think 9/11 Commission. It took a ridiculous amount of time for that, and this is an ongoing disaster. Looking at everything retrospectively under a microscope won't be able to be done for perhaps 6 months to a year with any accuracy. As it is, its pretty much the death knell for anyone choosing to run under the Republican banner in '08 (and probably '06), unless they decide to break rank.

But wouldn't it be weird of New Orleans came under a Republican mayor?