Fascism Watch and the Bird Flu

The World Health Organization has decided not to estimate how many victims might succumb in an avian flu pandemic. They finally admitted they can't give an estimate, but we should assume it would be a hell of a lot of people.

In case of a bird flu outbreak, President Bush says that he would have to call in the troops, here on U.S. soil, to keep us all safe. Somehow the thought doesn't make me feel any safer.

As I pointed out in a post on August 10, 2005, the Defense Department is coming up with a plan, CONPLAN, to be exact, that would take control from civilian authorities and give it to the military in case of a terror attack.

If you aren't scared you should be. Any proposal that gives the military further control over our lives ought to protested and vehemently opposed. The deafening silence you hear is the result of inertia, ignorance and post 9/11 propaganda. We have been told so often that we must choose between having civil liberties or being safe that most of us go along like sheep and accept atrocities like the Patriot Act. Our leaders did. Only one Senator, Russ Feingold, voted no.

Let's hope that a few others have gathered the courage they lacked after 9/11 and vociferously oppose the impositon of military control over our lives.

Why Does Bush's Jaw Twitch?

I try not to look at Bush too often. The sight of him is bad for my mental health. Perhaps I need to check him out from time to time and observe him more closely. He appears to have developed an odd twitch in his jaw. Is he sick? Is he medicated? Is he drunk? We will never know, but look for yourself here.

Katrina Victims Still Need Help, the Red Cross Does Not

The Red Cross expects to raise more than $2 billion before Hurricane Katrina-related giving subsides. If it takes care of 300,000 people, that's $7,000 per victim. I doubt each victim under Red Cross care will see more than a doughnut, an interview with a social worker and a short-term voucher for a cheap motel, with a few miscellaneous items such as clothes and cooking pots thrown in.
Richard Walden, Operation USA

Katrina victims still need help and they still aren't getting it from FEMA or from the Red Cross. As I said on September 3rd, the Red Cross is a bad choice for relief funds. Its pre-existing contracts with state and local governments provide enough money for the little that is does. When private donors give more it just ends up in the Red Cross coffers.

SOS After Katrina is a much better organization. It is community based 501c3. Your donations are tax deductible. SOS provided food and supplies when FEMA and the Red Cross were missing in action.

Boeing Brings Hell To Islam














Boeing and Bell helicopter produced an ad showing U.S. troops rappelling from a helicopter on to the roof of a mosque. The photo is bad enough, but apparently they didn't think so. They added this text, ""It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell. Consider it a gift from above."

Someone at Boeing had an attack of common sense and now says, "We consider the ad offensive, regret its publication and apologize to those who, like us, are dismayed with its contents." They also say that red flags were raised and it was published by mistake after being cancelled. Boeing also claims that the ad is made up of composite images and that there is no photo of soldiers attacking a mosque. Well, thank Allah for small favors.

Once again America proves that it is in fact the infidel nation. How else can the occupation of Iraq be explained? I don't know if there is or isn't a photo of a mosque being attacked but it doesn't really matter. The very fact that the U.S. occupied a Muslim nation is proof of contempt if not hatred for that religion.

It is easy to blame Boeing for this debacle, but like every other debacle this one begins at the top.The U.S. insists on killing Arabs and Muslims. That is the most salient fact. Hubbub about an ad shouldn't be a distraction from that point.

End the occupation. We won't have to worry about Bell, Boeing or ill conceived ads.

"You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
Bill Bennett, Bookie of Virtue

Thank you Bill Bennett. Thank you for confirming what I already knew. I knew that you, like moralizers everywhere, are a freak. I knew that you would eradicate black people if you could. Thank you for making the case for me.

Bill Bennett was Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration. He went on to make a living telling the rest of us that we were immoral, Bill Clinton especially. Things went a bit down hill for him after it was revealed that he has a very bad gambling habit. He then did us a favor and disappeared for a while, but not for long enough.

Bennett's hatred and slickness are obvious. First he says he is pro-life, that is to say against abortion. Then he says you could have a good outcome if you aborted a select group. Then he gives himself an out.

That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

If it is impossible, ridiculous and reprehensible, why would the thought occur to him? Here is a list of worthwhile outcomes that would result if every white fetus was dispatched.

1. No nuclear weapons
2. No Enron, or Halliburton
3. No Bush family
4. No drug trade
5. No Paris Hilton
6. Black people would rule, white people would be at the bottom, and black pundits could advocate that the remaining white fetuses get the heave ho
7. No Bill Bennett

It is very important that the Bennetts of the world tell us what is on their minds. For those who hadn't figured it out already, we now know why there are so many black people in prison. It is because Bennett and most other white people want us there. If they can't accomplish that, they would get rid of us by some other means. It is difficult to live with that knowledge, but denial is deadly.

If you want to read and hear his comments in their entirety, go to Media Matters.

Karen of Arabia

Instead of pressuring Israel to end the occupation of Palestine, instead of ending the killing of Irais, the Bush administration has sent Karen Hughes to tell the Arab world that Americans are really very nice. Needless to say, no one is buying it.

So much so, that an audience of well educated Saudi women claimed they don't really want the right to drive a care. One physician asserted, "I don't want to drive a car. I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?"

I have to say that I don't think that woman is telling the truth. I'm sure she would get a license in a heart beat if she were able to do so. The problem is saying that to someone who daily undertakes the humiliation of your people.

It is like criticizing relatives. You may do it yourself, but you get mad if an outsider says the same thing about your annoying sibling. Saudi women aren't going to tell a representative of the infidel state that they would like to see any changes in their country.

Karen should go home and tell her boss to end the occupation of Iraq. That would get him more applause in the Arab world than her little PR tour ever could.

Brownie is Backie

I couldn't make it up. Recently ousted FEMA director Michael Brown has been hired as a consultant for that agency.

Over the weekend I participated in a panel discussion at Mount Holyoke college. Panelists from a variety of disciplines in the "Storms of Controversy" program addressed the political and historic issues that created the fiasco of the hurricane Katrina aftermath.

I said that everything occuring post-Katrina is the result of America being turned into a failed state. I also said that cronyism isn't surprising in a failed state, it is in fact a necessity. You can't have true public servants running FEMA when its goal is to hand out contracts to the well connected.

Of course, the purpose of said contracts is not to really do anything they are legally obligated to do. If that were the case then Iraq would be truly reconstructed by now. Instead billions of dollars have been doled out to Halliburton and its ilk while Baghdad may or may not have running water or electricity on any given day.

So of course Brownie is back. The system demands it.

Bianca Exists

There is a Bianca. She was at MSNBC, but she isn't anymore. While it is true that Bush was talking to someone who wasn't around, she does in fact exist.

I still say he is drinking and perhaps medicated too.

(Steve Kelley, Times Picayune)

Evacuees Burn to Death and President Hallucinates

Sorry to be so blunt, but there is no way to sugar coat it. Hurrican evacuees from a Texas nursing home burned to death when their bus caught fire and ignited their oxygen tanks. Twenty-four people are dead.

Buses, buses, buses. That is all we heard from the White House crowd post-Katrina. New Orleans Mayor Nagin had hundreds, some said thousands of buses that he didn't use to evacuate his city. There were approximately 300 school buses in New Orleans, but the drivers were getting the hell out of Dodge like everyone else.

What will they say about Texas, Dubya's home? Will we hear the endless refrain about "failures at all levels of government?" Even after Katrina, not even one month after Katrina, Texas officials had no clue about evacuating residents. Traffic jams 100 miles long were filled with cars that had broken down or run out of gas.

The Bushies can't suddenly change horses in mid-stream and use government for the benefit of the public. They haven't done it because they aren't interested. In their world view the purpose of government is to make war and to help the haves have more. They can't save us from natural disasters or anything else.

By the way, who is Bianca and why does Bush want to talk to her when she is no where to be seen? Is the National Enquirer correct that Bush is hitting the bottle?

Dr. Ben Marble to Cheney: "Go F_ _k Yourself"

Ben Marble, M.D. is a man who spoke for millions of Americans when he told Dick Cheney where to go and how to get there. Of course he paid the price. He was briefly detained by Secret Service after he spoke truth to power. Marble had reason to be annoyed. He lost his home in the hurricane. Read his story here.

Canadians Beat U.S. Army to New Orleans Suburb

"Give the boys at Halliburton 90-billion dollar contract to patch hole in ozone"
David Letterman, Top Ten Bush Solutions for Global Warming

The federal government was slow in responding to hurricane victims, but quick to give Halliburton a reconstruction contract.

Cheney was in hiding for the last two weeks because he had very important business to take care of. He had to give Halliburton the hook up one more time. You just can't have a catastrophe without Bush cronies walking away with some dough.

Let's see. Joe Allbaugh was the former FEMA director. He had no qualifications for the job. He was Bush's campaign director.

He left to make money in the financial rape of Iraq. Before he left FEMA he did us the great favor of putting Michael Brown in charge there. Thank you Mr. Allbaugh. Now Allbaugh is a Halliburton consultant. It all smells worse than the water in New Orleans.

"Go F_ _ k Yourself Mr. Cheney"

Dick is still alive, but perhaps he shoulda stood in bed. A disgruntled Gulf Coast resident cursed him out, just the way Cheney cursed out Senator Pat Leahy on the floor of the Senate. The footage is here.

It is nice to see the profane Mr. Cheney being greeted with profanity, but I have a few questions. One, who is the "John" he is referring to? Why did reporters find Dick amusing? Will they ask who he was talking about? Was he AWOL because he had to get Halliburton more of our money than they already have received? Stay tuned but don't hold your breath.

Dick Cheney is Alive

There is still no explanation for his absence, but he is alive and kicking, for today anyway.

Michael Brown

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, it does. FEMA director Michael Brown graduated from a non-accredited law school and hadn't practiced law for years when he became general counsel for that federal agency.

It's bad enough when attorneys are named to government jobs for which their careers, no matter how distinguished, don't qualify them. But Brown wasn't a distinguished lawyer: He was hardly a lawyer at all. When he left the IAHA, he was a 47-year-old with a very thin resumé and no job. Yet he was also what's known in the Mafia as a "connected guy." That such a person could end up in one of the federal government's most important positions tells you all you need to know about how the Bush administration works--or, rather, doesn't.

New Republic Online (registration required)

Americans Act Like Battered Wives

Your man is no good. He treats you like crap, lies to you, abuses you, bullies you, exploits you, takes your money. As a friend I want to tell you that you deserve better. You deserve a person that treats you with respect, cares about your welfare, and your children’s welfare, but that’s not George and it never will be.

12thharmonic blog

Republican Governors Had No Evacuation for Residents without Cars

The next time the mainstream media or anyone criticizes New Orleans' and Louisiana's evacuation plans as inadequate, and they were, woefully so, ask the person doing the complaining about Mississippi and Alabama's evacuation efforts, particularly for the car-less and poor.

Petrelis Files, September 8, 2005

FEMA Bans Photos of the Dead

FEMA has rejected journalists' requests to accompany search and rescue boats. They say they want to give the dead some dignity.

It isn't hard to blur a face, assuming any of the bodies are still recognizable. This is another step on the road to white wash but it will only take place if the media allow it.

Reporters should get their own boats and by hook or crook get photos, however gruesome, of the dead. The party that claims to value a "culture of life" doesn't. If they did, there would be a lot fewer of the dead to photograph.

Bush was Briefed by National Hurricane Center

If you don't believe me, you should believe the White House web site. Thanks to Talking Points Memo.