Holy shit : A federal appeals court ruled today that the president can indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in the absence of criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital during wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.
What’s the next step? I’m afraid to ask…
Time magazine on Friday reported that Brown’s official biography overstated his emergency-management experience.
You’re fucking kidding me!
I never, ever would have seen that coming, I mean, especially considering the fact that ol’ “Brownie” was, prior to receiving his BushCo blowjob for bending over during Campaign 2000, head pony boy at the International Arabian Horse Association.
I am truly, deeply shocked and saddened to be faced with the news, in all the major outlets, originally reported by Time, that those in the current administration are in positions of power, making life and death decisions on a daily basis, because they got to play cowboys and injuns in the last two presidential campaigns, proudly displaying their Ranger or Pioneer metal badges while sipping champagne and masturbating to the thought of perks like a massive tax cut for the top 2 percent of American earners, a repeal of the estate tax, and phat bonuses for businesses that screw workers on a daily basis— Pension schmension! Unions? Hell no! Increased productivity with fewer workers? You betcha! Who needs a vacation anyway? (I mean, except for Bush…)
And Brownie’s not alone:
Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Well, it certainly makes me feel safe to know that a man who likes pretty horseys, and former lobbyist, TV talking head and PR flack (Brooks Altshuler, who’s not even on FEMA’s Web site) are also on FEMA’s payroll, which may begin to explain why the U.S. looked like some teenage boy caught jacking off in the bathroom by his mother last week… wide eyed, holding a small, limp dick.
You have to ask yourself how a country such as the U.S.—the richest, most powerful country in the world—can be so woefully ill prepared to deal with something like Hurricane Katrina.
It’s not only shocking, it’s embarrassing, and we are quickly becoming the laughing-stock of the world. Two pieces published today show the stark differences between what the U.S. sees, and how the rest of the world sees us (I’ve color-coded the two pieces to better show the freakish parallels):
US accepts nearly $1b in foreign aid
Thursday, Sept. 8 in Boston.com
WASHINGTON — The State Department has announced that it has accepted nearly a billion dollars in pledges of foreign aid following Hurricane Katrina, including hundreds of millions in cash to be donated directly to the federal government as well as planeloads of ready-to-eat meals, tents, and baby formula.
The assistance is beginning to pour in from countries large and small, a week after President Bush said on ABC’s ”Good Morning America" that he had not asked for foreign assistance and didn’t think the United States needed it.
Yesterday, Harry Thomas Jr., the State Department executive secretary who is helping to coordinate the foreign relief effort, denied that the Bush administration was lukewarm toward accepting the help.
U.S. unprepared to receive foreign aid
Friday, Sept. 9 in the International Herald Journal
WASHINGTON — Generous offers of aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina are pouring in from scores of countries, but in many cases the United States is unprepared to receive the goods. As a result, the U.S. State Department is pressing countries that have offered the use of helicopters, water purification equipment and telecommunications gear – among other items – to provide cash or ready-to-eat meals instead. Even with difficulties delivering foreign aid, it is beginning to arrive at or near the Gulf Coast, including ready-to-eat meals from Britain, tents from France, and first-aid kits and baby formula from Italy.
But the United States is more accustomed to giving aid than receiving it, and the Bush administration seemed to have trouble accepting the role reversal.
Early last week, President George W. Bush said the United States could take care of itself. "I do expect a lot of sympathy, and perhaps some will send cash dollars," he said. "But this country is going to rise up and take care of it."
”Not in the State Department," Thomas said, without referring to the White House. ”We welcomed all offers. This is unprecedented."
As the proportion of the crisis became apparent, the view changed. But preparations to receive anything but the simplest forms of aid have not caught up. Thomas explained that the United States has no experience with situations like these. "This is unprecedented," he said several times to reporters Wednesday.
Aid officials in Poland and Austria said yesterday they had not yet heard back from the United States about whether their offers of aid had been accepted. Planeloads of supplies waited yesterday morning in Sweden and India without word from the US government on whether or when they would receive permission to land in the United States.
When Sweden received the American request, it loaded a Hercules C-130 plane with water purification equipment, emergency power generators and components for a temporary cellphone network. The plane has been ready to take off since noon Saturday, but on Thursday it still had not been given clearance by Washington. "We are still waiting for the green light," Victoria Forslund said at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm.
A Mexican army convoy and a navy ship stocked with food, supplies, and specialists made their way north toward the US border last night, days after Mexico extended its offer of assistance. On Tuesday, the first planeload of tents arrived from France at a military airport in Little Rock, Ark., after officials spent all weekend trying to determine where the shipment should land. Another French plane filled with food was due to land yesterday in Biloxi, Miss.
Sweden is not the only country that has encountered problems delivering aid to the United States. France, Germany, India and Taiwan, among others, are awaiting answers to offers.
Aid officials in Poland and Austria said yesterday they had not yet heard back from the United States about whether their offers of aid had been accepted. Planeloads of supplies waited yesterday morning in Sweden and India without word from the US government on whether or when they would receive permission to land in the United States.
The slow pace of aid acceptance, after the urgency of the U.S. request, has bemused many countries. Thomas, the State Department secretary, said embassy officers in each country have tried to explain why the aid requests are being handled as they are and insisted "every country has heard back from us."
But as Europe prepares more supplies, officials there say they are beginning to wonder whether the aid is really needed or will ever be used.
But what’s even scarier is what countries we’ve actually accepted aid from so far. Sounds like a who’s who of oil rich and/or nations that stand to gain or keep something politically to me (well, except for Ireland, which was smart enough to give straight up to the Red Cross):
Donations
Kuwait : $400 million in oil and $100 million cash
United Arab Emirates : $100 million cash
Qatar : $100 million cash
Republic of Korea: $30 million cash and in-kind donations
Australia : $7.6 million
China : $5.1 million cash and relief supplies
India : $5 million cash
Ireland : $1 million to Red Cross
Iraq : $1 million cash
Bangladesh : $1 million cash
Azerbaijan : $500,000 cash
Gabon : $500,000 cash
Afghanistan : $100,000 cash
Armenia : $100,000 cash
Bahamas : $50,000 cash
Maldives : $25,000 cash
Sri Lanka : $25,000 cash
Bosnia : $6,414 cash
SOURCE: US State Department
Today I feel sick. Just plain ol’ sick—stomach hurts, can’t eat, head aches … ugh. Oh winter, you must be around the corner!
Of course, a small part of my nausea could be caused by the fact that Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow are engaged. Ain’t that always the case—the bike boys dig the non-bike riding girly-girls.
Well, fuck ’em. I guess they need to feel more manly, what with their shaved legs and all. (Not that I’m against that look, I’m just disappointed that time and time again I’m forced to face that fact that, character-wise, men are pussies.)
Although, it looks like I’ll be heading to France next summer:
PARIS—Lance Armstrong plans to train with his team this winter, increasing speculation he will end his retirement and attempt an eighth straight Tour de France win.
“It’s definitely an open possibility, I know he is on the bike,” Discovery Channel team director Johan Bruyneel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.
I don’t know … should I find it amusing, or horrifying …
Either way, I find the entire Katrina debacle to be further indication that the office of the “leader of the free world” is occupied by a tard.
Not that I’ve felt any differently since BushCo. took office, it’s just that more and more are starting to agree with me.
We’re in for it now, peeps:
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Amid the unfolding disaster left by Hurricane Katrina, Colorado State University researchers said Friday they expect more storms over the next two months.
“The very active season we have seen to this point is far from over,” researcher Philip Klotzbach said. “We expect that by the time the 2005 hurricane season is over, we will witness seasonal tropical cyclone activity at near-record levels.”
Couple that with a New York Press article my roommate told me about last night, which predicted the potential for a catastrophic hurricane to hit the metropolitan New York area is ripe:
“The 1938 Long Island Express, a borderline category-4 hurricane that plowed into West Hampton, causing widespread death and devastation across New York, New Jersey and New England, was the last major hurricane to hit the region. Statistically speaking, ‘a storm of that magnitude may repeat every 70 to 80 years or so,’ Mike Lee, director of Watch Command at New York City ‘s Office of Emergency Management, says.
‘So, do the math. Whether it happens this year, next year, or in five years, it’s going to happen.’ And with this year’s hurricane season forecasted to be even busier and more dangerous than last year’s record-setter, ‘It’s just a matter of time,’ Lee says.”
And, considering the fact that this is just the beginning of hurricane season, it looks like we’ve got a long, wet and potentially deadly fall here on the good ol’ east coast.
According to the Washington Post, the FDA has postponed ruling on whether to allow access without prescription to the so-called morning after pill, Plan B. In a move that the Post describes as a common practice for the Bush administration, FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford announced the delay late last Friday.
“At 3 p.m., when Congress was out of town and millions of Americans (and more than a few journalists) were headed for the beach or the mountains, the agency sent out an e-mail message that it would be holding a news conference at its Rockville headquarters one hour later.”
With a mere seven journalists present, the agency said it was delaying ruling ” because of unresolved regulatory issues.”
The Post , however, had this to say regarding the administration’s late-hour antics:
“The Bush administration is hardly the first to release potentially bad or controversial news late on Fridays—when news operations, and the public, tend to be least tuned in—but it has emerged as one of the more consistent practitioners.
“On Friday, June 10, for instance, the Agriculture Department announced at 8 p.m. that mad cow disease had possibly been found in a second American animal—news that could upset the beef market. The timing was unusual because the animal had first been tested more than six months before.
“When USDA released the news two weeks ago that the animal did indeed have mad cow disease, it was again on a Friday afternoon when many reporters couldn’t make it to the department headquarters, and a teleconference was set up. After a statement from Secretary Mike Johanns, reporters began asking questions. Soon after, the telephone hookup failed and was never restored.”
It remains to be seen what the outcome will be regarding Plan B, but, like so many other laws and regulations made throughout history in regard to women’s health, it’s time for women to take matters into their own hands no matter what the final decision, as they have done for centuries.
In the early 1900s Margaret Sanger pioneered birth control access and information in an age when women routinely gave birth to a child a year, even though she was jailed on many occasions and was forced to flee to Europe.
In 1969 in Chicago women created a system where women could call ” Jane,” and get information and referral to a safe, albeit illegal, abortion.
It’s up to women to take care of other women, and ensure that if the panicked phone call comes at 7 a.m. from one of your girlfriends, freaking out over the night before, you’ve got her covered. It’s illegal, yes, but it’s also immoral for a bunch of rich white men to dictate women’s lives. Or, in lieu of that, direct her to this Website.
es|brath 