NPR : Hundreds Die in Panic on Baghdad Bridge -- poisoning?

NPR report claims that 158 people (according to the Iraqi ministry of health) died from poisoning during the same pilgramage, in addition to the hundreds who died in the crush on the bridge.

The End of New Orleans

As busses convoy out the remaining 20% of New Orleans' population to parts unknown, you've gotta ask: who are those people, and will they come back?

The 20% of New Orleans' population were those who could not afford to heed the mayor's evacuation call -- they don't have cars, and couldn't afford to leave otherwise. They live hand to mouth, and month-to-month at best. When they get to wherever they are going (the Astrodome in Houston for many of them), they are going to have to find jobs to survive in the interim, and once they do, why would they come back? Before you've even started about rebuilding, 20% of the population is gone.

And the remaining 80%? Their factories and workplaces are wiped off the map. There won't be anyplace for anyone to work; construction will be up, but it will be months before anyone could come back to the office job they used to have. And how do they live until then? To me, this sounds like, before you even start, New Orleans has lost 50% of its population. And losing that much it's hardly likely the city could recover to its pre-hurricane economic level for decades.

Genie Grants Scalia Strict Constructionist Interpretation Of Wish

The Onion offers relief for the day: "WASHINGTON, DC—A genie freed from a battered oil lamp by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia granted the conservative jurist a strict constructionist interpretation of his wish for 'a hundred billion bucks' Monday. 'Sim sim salabim! Your wish is my command!' the genie proclaimed amid flashes of light and purple smoke, immediately filling the Supreme Court building with a massive herd of wild male antelopes. When Justice Scalia complained that the 'bucks' had razed the U.S. Supreme Court building, trampling and killing several of his clerks and bringing traffic in the nation's capital to a standstill for hours, the genie said, 'Your honor, your wish is a sacred and unalterable document whose interpretation is not subject to the whims of society and changing social context.'"

Astrodome to Shelter Superdome Refugees

Now that's going to be a hell of a T-shirt.

American Pompeii

New Orleans Is Now Off Limits.

And outrageous: the military is performing the relief effort. Our National Guard is in Iraq, and the Military is doing relief at home. That's a complete reversal -- and a very inefficient use of our personnel resources.

Great OpEd in the Times -

by Francis Fukuyama : "With the failure to secure Sunni support for the constitution and splits within the Shiite community, it seems increasingly unlikely that a strong and cohesive Iraqi government will be in place anytime soon. Indeed, the problem now will be to prevent Iraq's constituent groups from looking to their own militias rather than to the government for protection. If the United States withdraws prematurely, Iraq will slide into greater chaos. That would set off a chain of unfortunate events that will further damage American credibility around the world and ensure that the United States remains preoccupied with the Middle East to the detriment of other important regions - Asia, for example - for years to come."

NYT Eds Don't Like Bush

New Orleans lies in ruins, and the NYT Editorial board can't resist the urge to needle President Bush about it:

But this seems like the wrong moment to dwell on fault-finding, or even to point out that it took what may become the worst natural disaster in American history to pry President Bush out of his vacation. All the focus now must be on rescuing the survivors.

Wrong moment, huh? Au contraire, mon amis! I think it's never a bad time to get snarky on the Dubyah.

Bush's Legacy

That household income has dropped for five straight years -- -the longest decline on record -- and poverty rates are up again to what they were before Clinton took office pretty much seals the deal.


It's time, with midterms in the next year, to wind up Bush's legacy. Here it is: he is absolutely the worst president we have ever had. This, coupled with situations ready to spiral out of control, are about to sink the country into the worst social unrest of the past century. Combine inside the torn psyches of Americans the twin disorder of realizing the lie and costs of Iraq, with the deteriorating economy at home, and genuine anger is the result.

Why do I come to this conclusion today? Wed, Aug 31? The answer is New Orleans. The destruction there, the active way this administration removed disaster preparedness which led to it's present state, the crime and disorder it sees, the real possibility that the city will not recover -- literally, effectively wiped off the map -- due to the lack of preparedness and the budget deficit which makes any real National response impossible; the likelihood of $3 gas --- all of this will chime in the ears of people who have come to accept that we are in a war based on lies, spending over a Trillion dollars to do nothing but create another civil war in a country which posed no military threat to us. People can handle the knowledge that they were liied to. However, when the lies have real consequences, they get very angry.

U.S. Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent - New York Times

That's six million more Americans living in poverty now than when Bush took office in 2000. Total number of Americans now living in poverty: 37 Million

The last time the poverty rate was this high -- 12.7% --- was 1993, just after W.'s dad left office.

Like I've said -- now is the time to be very, very rich in the U.S. Everyone else is losing ground.

Sheehanization

The steady, simple, and undeniable statement, made over and over in the press, is finally filtering its way into the higher edges of the Democratic party: We were led to war on a lie. Facts are funny, persistent things.

Gary Hart in the WaPost:: "The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating 'Stay the course' even when the course, whatever it now is, is light years away from the one originally undertaken. The truth is we're way off course. We've stumbled into a hornet's nest. We've weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began."

Religious Extremist Calls for Presidential Assassination

Unbelievable. And all broadcast on a television show.

Well, okay, sure, the television show was "The 700 Club." it was Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Update 9:00pm, Aug 23: and now everyone is piling on Pat Robertson . As it should be.

NYT vs Onion on Intelligent Design

NYT says:

Proponents of intelligent design say biological marvels point to the hand of a higher being, but mainstream scientists are unconvinced.

The Onion says:

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Score one for the Onion - or two, actually, since the NYT piece is second in a two-part series on the subject, altogether weighing in at maybe 3000 words, while the Onion gets the point across in a single headline.

US Blows Away NAFTA

Ugh The US and Canadian trade agreements are basically free trade. However, recently, the US has put a tarrif on Canadian soft lumber, and collected $5B doing so. Canada has taken the issue to every single body established under NAFTA to mediate, and all of them have found in Canada's favor. Last week, they went to the trial of last resort: the Extraordinary Challenge Committee. No kidding. It was put into the treaty by the US, who wanted it there as a 'last resort' for trade disputes. And they found in Canada's favor. And so the US said: "Tough, we'll still collect the tarrif. You can't stop us." Really. So, now Canada is going to the WTO to ask permission to levy $5B in retaliatory tarrifs.

Harvard Med School grad confuses science, religion

Apparently, Harvard Med School graduates - at least some of them - cannot be depended on to distinguish religion from science. Instead, they advocate as a matter of public policy that thinly-veiled religious doctrine be taught in American public school science classes.

Oddly, however, even in advocating this comingling of the magisteria, they do not promote or even mention the idea of teaching evolution by natural selection in Sunday School.

Thanks to TPM for the link. See also my earlier post on the similar difficulties afflicting some of our nation's Yale graduates.

Pope to Jews:

"Beware of rising Anti-semitism.

Jews to pope: Yeah, thanks for the heads up pope. Glad you've got your ear to the ground. Anti-semitism. We'll keep an eye out.

Cheney mourns Iraq war deaths? In This Chilly Weather?

They say Dick Cheney is mourning Iraq war deaths. How could they be so sure? He didn't even bother to put on his mourning parka.

In the Face of the President

Bush got to see an anti-war protest today. Six mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq, including Cindy Sheehan, and dozens of supporters.

I'm guessing he's never seen one before.

Al Qaida Determined To Strike In US

It turns out that military intelligence officials knew that the 9/11 leader Mohamed Atta was in Al Qaida and might be in a US based terror cell one year before the attacks. The Sept 11 commission knew this information, but purposely left it out of their final report.

The End of Canada

Those crazy Separatists. At 35% of the population, they're interested in getting the debate for removing themselves from Canada going, now. They think the Canadian federation has been a raw deal for them; so why tolerate it?

About what you'd expect from the Quebec Separatists right? Sure. But who's talking about Quebec separatists?

These are people in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. (Young people, actually -- aged 18-29).

So if Quebec wants out at 40% of their population, and they're at similar numbers in those three major provinces -- and there's not even a crisis going on -- what, exactly, is holding this country together?

Turns out: not much.

For the record: the provinces which I don't have any statistics about their separtist ferver are: Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland (and Labrador), and Nunavit.

DeLay To Not Run in 2008

Resolved: that Tom DeLay declares candidacy for the Presidency in 2008.

Pro: Steve
Con: Bob. Who thinks DeLay's too busy opening foster homes for abused and neglected children.

Get dem Dukes!

With A.O. Scott's review of the Dukes of Hazzard movie, I can't understand why they aren't giving this gem a platform release.

Quick Geography Test

True or false: There exists a US-allied, oil-rich Islamic country called "Mauritania".

Ans: True. And they just had a military coup.

Yale grad considers evolution "one alternative"

It seems that Yale University graduates - at least some of them - cannot be counted on to distinguish between (1) The founding principle of modern biology and one of the most powerful unifying concepts in all of science, on the one hand; and (2) A dumb invocation of greater forces to "explain" the wonder and diversity of natural life, on the other.

It's a shock, I know. But 146 years after the discovery of evolution by natural selection, I humbly suggest that the Yale faculty consider introducing the subject into their core science requirement to alleviate the chances of such embarrassing episodes occurring in the future.

Bush to World & Senate Dems: Fuck You

He's now installed Big Time Asshole (that's an Administration technical term) John Bolton at the UN as our nation's - that is, your - Ambassador to the world. Reuters story.

Bush: Sympathetic to Boy Scouts, not to Soldiers

Bush went to a Boyscout Jamboree, where four scout masters had been killed during a lightning storm, and expressed his sympathy to the scouts. Sure, it's a tragedy.

But so are the close to 2000 deaths of American soldiers in the Iraq war. So why hasn't George Bush yet appeared at a funeral for an American soldier, to express sympathy to the family?