BEIRUT -- Well, as you can see, the blog is back up. A few minor changes have been made, and all the special features seem to be working.
But really, who cares? Almost 1,000 Shi'ites in Baghdad are dead in a stampede that is a horrible, horrible tragedy. The only upside is that for a while, sectarian suspicions were put on hold as Sunni mosques organized relief for Shi'ite families. Today, however, I hear politics in Baghdad are back to normal -- there was a gunfight at the bridge, which isn't unsual for Baghdad.
Meanwhile, back in the United States, I'm shocked and appalled by the destruction of Katrina and the sheer ineptness of the rescue efforts. You mean to tell me that four years after 9/11, the United States federal government responds to a massive disaster in a major American city in such a slip-shod manner? Unbelievable. I guess those tax dollars going to homeland security were well-spent, eh?
Why would you be surprised. What have we done in an effort to rebuild Iraq? or bring back basic services there? And the money and peoples sent there were and are far greater than the money and people sent to Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama. Our current government is totally inept, uncaring and criminal.
If ever a President should be impeached, it’s George W. Bush…
Bush will never be impeached. He has God on his side. Unfortunately.
The Bush Boys will make Serious Profits on the clean-up after the hurricane. Just like in Iraq, they’ll employ a few corrupt corporations like Halliburton to rebuild everything instead of local people. And … of course, the price gouging is a total mystery and a shock and of course Exxon Mobil isn’t reaping Record Profits. Why did the planning of the clean up take 4 days? Why wasn’t it done during the storm? The Bush Boys are too busy making money and fleecing the Great Unwashed into thinking they’re doing some sort of Moral, Holy work. Lemme get an Amen!
Naill, you’re kidding me right? Bush does not have any god on his side!
What is going on in New Orleans is a disgrace and its not getting any better. The people in the convention center (20,000) have been in there for four days with no food and water! Why? They know they are there! Now they send armed military . And, they send 3500 to try to restore order in NO when as I said before, there are 20,000 starving, desparate dehydrated people in one place!
Then they are only asking for 10 billion dollars for emergency relief efforts .. when there have been continual billions being poured into iraq with no measurable progress!
Its a DISGRACE!
Bush needs to be pulled out of the Whitehouse!!
Niall,
The Almighty moving in mysterious ways has chosen Geo. W. Bush to exercise His Divine Will here on earth.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1075950,00.html
http://www.irregulartimes.com/godspeaksthroughme.html
Hallelujah brothers!
Simon.
Funny - I thought I was reading a blog by someone who had specialized knowledge of what was really happening in Iraq.
Little did I know that you are also able to provide accurate and first-hand commentary on what’s happening in New Orleans as well!
It was reported yesterday that the Bush administration cut the funding for the Army Corp of Engineers to strengthen the levees in New Orleans. I suppose that tax savings is now lurking in the silk lined aristocratic pockets of some of Bush’s biggest campaign contributers!
Every time I visit Venice it seems to be flooded.
How can Little Nero remain in power? He has been reelected on the illusion that he’s strong on national defence and now it’s clear for the whole world to see that he’s completely inept at protecting the U.S. in case of disaster. Horrendous!
It gets worse. The neglect of New Orleans preparation and response is the outcome of years of Bush ineptitude and worse.
See Today in Iraq for the following post: Washington Monthly
September 1, 2005 CHRONOLOGY….Here’s a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep:
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration’s goal of privatizing much of FEMA’s work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: “Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program….” he said. “Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.”
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three “likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.”
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA’s preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana’s pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: “You would think we would get maximum consideration….This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it.”
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: “It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay.”
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.
So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration’s conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA’s preparation and planning functions were taken away.
Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It’s the Bush administration in a nutshell.
—- Stephan
So you’re in Hizbullahland right now?
Hizbullah a.k.a. “the party of [the Persian] deity” are just a bunch of turbaned fundamentalist clowns armed and trained by the enemies of Lebanon be they Iranian (today) or Israeli (earlier).
The whole “Hizbull-shit” thing actually started in the late 1970’s when then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was looking for South Lebanese collaborators against the PLO and its (mainly Sunni) Lebanese and Arab backers: the Israelis found an ally in the rapidly growing Shiite “revivalist” movement, which at the time was treated disdainfully as Southern folklore by the Sunni-Beiruti establishment, and the rest is History.
In many ways, this is pretty much just like what Carter and Reagan did in the same period when they decided to arm ultra-Hambali Islamic fundamentalist gangs such as Al-Qaeda to counter the highly exaggerated Soviet threat in Afghanistan and Central Asia: once again, the proverbial “Djinn” escaped from the bottle and went on a rampage determined to kill the mad scientist who had created him…
At this crucial juncture, the most efficient way to fight Iranian Islamic fundamentalism would be to free President Saddam Hussein- maybe the French or the Russians could give him political refugee status for a while.
The man had class to spare, always very elegant in his dark grey suit and tie- whereas “Grand” Ayatollah Al-Sistani always wears a dirty Persian silk napkin on his head!
Saddam knew how to shoot straight from the hip, he had a tasteful penchant for vintage handcrafted European rifles such as the ManuFrance triple-barreled Buffalo-Mittraille (a masterpiece), and he certainly knew how to make good use of it notably on renegade Shiite fundamentalists.
This shows that our federal government will not be there to help us in case of an emergency. We are on our own.