Dem Leaders Introduce Legislation

10 Comments

1. 

   Parker on September 8, 2005 at 11:35 am

   put the Upsidedownland pic up…it is too surreal

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     Dean Pajevic on September 8, 2005 at 11:53 am

     Oh if you insist, Parker … snort! 🙂

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       Oui on September 8, 2005 at 12:48 pm

       .
       UPDATE: TRANSCRIPT ADDED.
       Charmaine Neville’s chilling first hand account — REAL heroism
       ◊ by Bob Johnson @dKos

       … with link for mac users

       NEW ORLEANS Sept. 2, 2005 —
       WAFB TV – Charmaine Neville :: Heartbreaking Story of Escape

       A repeat, I wasn’t sure you caught my post!

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2. 

   boran2 on September 8, 2005 at 11:45 am

   At least Dems share the content of their legislation.

3. 

   sbj on September 8, 2005 at 12:21 pm

   I’ve never been one to put much stock in hope as a useful method of dealing with difficulty However,  the scale of the tragedy in our Gulf states and the almost certain additional suffering that will be caused by the Bush regime’s criminal negligence leads me now to fervently hope that, for the sake of the thousands of people now in desperate straits, there will be someone in congress and in the media to shame BushCo and his GOP supporters into doing right by all our citizens in this devastated part of the country.

   Certainly the Democratic Party has little if any real leverage in the legislative arena, so shaming the Repubs might be the only way to get them to do what’s right in all this. Similarly, despite the burst of genuine news reporting and real outrage at the government’s abject failures, the MSM has for the most part reverted to type; they’re back in entertainment mode, feeding the public’s horrendous appetite for tragedy because it’s good for their bottom line. So these craven flacks need to be shamed too and I’m hopeful we can continue to do that here on the blogs, even if we can’t get access into the print pages or broadcast programs of the offending media organizations.

   Going forward, I hope many more people in this country will come to understand the following;

   1. The Bush administration is an anti-democracy administration.  Both the major players within the administration itself and their congressional toadies have no compunction at all about violating the very principles at the core of democracy if they need to do so in order to get their way.  The lack of accountability alone in this gang is evidence enough of undemocratic methodology, and the relentless stream of lies, the authoritarian excess of the majority party in congress, and the repetitive circumvention of the legislative process all point to complete contempt for the democratic process.
   2. The Bush regime displays almost total disregard for the very ideas of equality, basic human rights and freedoms for all enshrined in our constitution. Systematically they looted the economy on a scale never before seen in the history of the country, and given the proceeds to their already wealthy friends and supporters. They make Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos look like smalltimers, and the Marcos duo were, until Bush, the single greatest asset strippers of national wealth in history. They have mounted a relentless campaign to destroy the very ability for government to do what it’s only reason for existence demands that it do, namely protect, sustain, and in the best of times improve the lives of the people it serves. Undermining all the social programs by starving them of resources, undermining health care by giving huge tax and contract bonuses to a corrupt and destructive pharmaceutical industry; none of this even remotely translates into upholding the essentials of our constitution.
   3. The war in Iraq was and is now a catastrophic mistake that has damaged our country and our culture, and that has guaranteed that we’ll be engaged in bloody conflict in one way or another for decades, perhaps generations, to come. The Bush regime has made us less safe as a country and has ensured we’ll not be trusted by any other country on almost anything for a very long time. BushCo has elevated the status and influence of bin Laden and his band of murderous psychopaths from being a criminal gang into being a philosophy and a movement. BushCo’s actions have created more active terrorists than they’ve eliminated by several orders of magnitude, and, ultimately, our president has been the single greatest enabler of Al Qaeda.

   These are things I hope will begin to be acknowledged by more and more of the public. BushCo’s poll numbers are sinking and that’s great, but in the end, we need to repudiate the entire agenda and ideology of these extremists if we’re going to have a chance to take back the country.

   A bit of a rant here, but I’d much prefer evicting these lunatics through shame and constitutional processes than by the bloody methods of insurrection and revolution, and I fear those alternatives are closer to reality than we care to imagine.

4. 

   iamcoyote on September 8, 2005 at 12:25 pm

   You all are always on the ball; I was just coming over here to give you a heads-up on this map!  Kudos!

   • 

     Dean Pajevic on September 8, 2005 at 12:31 pm

     What map?

     And who are you?

     I could use a pack of coyotes ’bout now.

     George was in the cat cage all night, after the hungry raccoons had at him.

     I just poured honey on him, then sprinkled bird seed (the Olympic Mountains variety because the local birds love it so) all over him.

     The blue jays and the crows are lovin’ him.

     Now, a pack of coyotes … ah yes …

     (Susan the Sadist)

     • 

       iamcoyote on September 8, 2005 at 3:42 pm

       I’m just a longtime lurker and political junkie like ya’ll. Izzy directed me to your site a long time ago, and I’ve been reading you guys ever since dkos got too unwieldy and strife-ridden.  I usually hang out at The Left Coaster and blog at Low & Left.

5. 

   rba on September 8, 2005 at 1:15 pm

   Crooks & Liars references Bob Harris’ site, which is slammed.  Never mind.  Here’s the actual map, with actual parishes shown, where real people and institutions qualify for aid.  Orange indicates individual + public assistance; light orange is public assistance only:

   

   This map is from the 29th, the day Katrina hit.

6. 

   Oui on September 8, 2005 at 2:42 pm

   .
   
   Bush and Chertoff

   From A Curious Lacuna
   Incidentally, according to the White House website, on the same day, Monday, Aug. 29, Bush told an audience in Arizona that he had been on the telephone that very day to “Mike Chertoff, the head of the Department of Homeland Security.” The matter was so urgent that he had called Chertoff from Air Force One, while flying to the meeting in Arizona. And what was the urgent matter that Bush and Chertoff discussed — while the 17th Street Canal and Industrial Canal levees were breaking and floodwater was filling up New Orleans?

   “I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are. That’s the most effective way to do things, is to work with the state and local authorities. There are more resources that will be available.”

   And resources for what exactly? “We’ll have more folks on the border; there will be more detention space to make sure that those who are stopped trying to illegally enter our country are able to be detained.”

   That’s right. While the levees were breaking, Bush was calling Chertoff to make sure there were more hoosegows for Mexicans trying to cross the border. Priorities, priorities — ya gotta stay focused on the priorities! That’s leadership.

   This fits well with the new message today —

   U.S. ICE Redirects 700 Workers Helping FEMA

   WASHINGTON Sept. 8, 2005 — The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency acted today to ensure it has adequate numbers of employees in the Gulf Coast region to continue protecting rescuers and helping New Orleans police.

   In an internal memorandum distributed to Customs Enforcement employees, the agency’s director of human resources, Christine M. Greco, directed workers to withdraw offers to volunteer for hurricane relief duty with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Both agencies are under the Homeland Security Department of Head Chertoff.

   “We want to be careful we’re not stretched too thin,” said a spokesman for Customs Enforcement, Dean Boyd. “It’s a daunting task helping … local police.”

   Boyd said the decision was made with FEMA’s approval. The disaster agency last week solicited more than 1,000 volunteers from elsewhere in the Homeland Security Department for rescue support roles such as helping hurricane victims to fill out paper work and informing victims where to seek help.

   Greco’s memo, obtained by The Associated Press, told Customs Enforcement employees who volunteered with FEMA that, “You will instead be part of the ICE effort to support law enforcement activities.”

   Greco praised the hundreds of employees who already had volunteered to work under FEMA, calling them “valiant and considerate.” She said any Customs Enforcement employees unhappy with the new volunteer arrangement “may make their desires known through their chain of command.”

   Boyd said the immigration and customs agency already has deployed more than 700 law enforcement and support workers to the Gulf Coast to provide security for FEMA rescue workers and provide law enforcement support, plus equipment that includes detention buses and mobile command centers.

   ICE memo is available as .pdf file

   DHS ORGANIZATION
   Privacy Office – Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)

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