Albany, NY -- Judge Rehnquist Dies

Breaking news, thanks Steve Harris:

Chief Justice William Rehnquist died Saturday at age 80.

Say hello to Chief Justice Clarence Thomas?

Labels: Supreme Court

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:30 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Brownie, You're Doin' a Heck of a Job

More from CableMonkey in Louisiana:

I just went around to a few of the stores here in the local area I live in. Most of the gas stations are currently out of gas. The local Pilot station has the low and high grade gas, but no mid grade. A no-brand gas station had nothing but the high grade. I think I saw cars at the Exxon station on the south side of town, but I didn't go there. Every Citgo station I saw was out of gas. The Exxon station in Start, Louisiana only had diesel.

I actually live just east of Monroe. I've heard reports from West Monroe that there is gas there at many locations. I have heard nothing from Monroe itself.

As for food, everything seems to be fine. Rumors are still going around like crazy and its hard to distinguish between false and real information.

Maureen Dowd is one columnist who, like me, is seething over the Bush administration's fine combination of incompetence and indifference in handling the hurricane relief:

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done.

But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.

At Alternet, Jordan Flaherty discusses the race and class implications of the relief efforts in New Orleans:

Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply repairing the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions.

Rupert Cornwell answers some questions we've all had on our minds.

A young, talented (and very pretty, I know her) writer from New Orleans named Anya Kamenetz has published her thoughts in the Village Voice about the ordeal from a Jewish perspective.

Read my pecs... no new... oops!

The New York Times reviews Green Day's tour -- I'm going to see them for the third time on the tour in Hartford on Friday. They're great, and American Idiot is a seminal album in punk history, but they unfortunately have been playing the same setlist, night in and night out. I'm really going to see Jimmy Eat World, whom I saw in Columbus last November and who put on one hell of a show.

Time to watch last night's Real Time with Bill Maher. One of the guests is Bradley Whitford, who when not playing bass with Aerosmith, stars as Josh Lyman on the West Wing. Man, I can't wait for new episodes of that.

Labels: George Bush, Katrina, Music, Politics, Republican Party, TV

posted by jbrzoska @ 9:20 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Hooker Boots

More later, now that I'm back up and functioning after last night, which can be summarized in Alison's away message: "Let me just mention this... if you wear hooker boots, people will notice you."

I'm hoping that this evening's posts will include a podcast or two, but no guarantees.

Labels: Alison

posted by jbrzoska @ 3:25 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- A Pig and an Elephant DNA...

More from Cablemonkey in Monroe, LA:

Gas shortage...and food supply is going down quickly

2 school districts in northeast Louisiana (including the one I work for) have cancelled classes. The state took MANY buses from these districts yesterday. The kids can't get to school now because the buses are being used to relocate people. They took 20 buses from our district. Not sure about the other.

And a little correction from regarding his quote from yesterday: "The riot [in Monroe, mentioned yesterday] was just a false rumor."

Meanwhile, nearby Biloxi cries out for help.

My friend Ari's family appears on the cover of the local section of today's Times Union. His sister, Anat, was to begin her freshman year at Tulane this week.

In his NYTimes column today, Paul Krugman criticizes the nation's unpreparedness for Hurricane Katrina. Some of the evidence for the Bush administration's incompetence is found in Washington Monthly's chronicle of the Bush administration's handling of FEMA since 2001. The bottom line:

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.

Anti-war activists are planning a major DC rally. I may attend, as I was planning on being in town the day after.In some promising news, relations between Israel and Pakistan are warming.

And in 2005, 1985 meets 1995 as the DNA of Duck Hunt and Doom are spliced... with better results than those in that Loverboy song...

Labels: Helpful Stuff, Iraq, Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:35 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Oil Spill

Ted's awfully good today:

BREAKING NEWS: Huge oil spill on the Mississippi downstream from New Orleans.

Labels: Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 4:00 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Props to the Media

From Ted:

I have to say......... it seems everyone is down on the press all the time. However, they have been nothing but heroes in this mess with only a few exceptions......Rita Crosby was off to Aruba to report on the Natalee Holloway story when they made her come back. In addition, I have never seen so many reporters break down crying while trying to give their report. There was a man who had lost his wife during the storm......he was holding on to her and the children at the same time. She said to stop holding her.....that he couldn't save both her and the children......and then she pushed him away and disappeared in the flood waters. The poor man was beside himself in grief.......he was hysterically looking for his wife. And the reporter was crying trying to help him.....asking what her name was so she could announce it to the world. It was heartbreaking and the reporter could barely talk. Scenes like that was repeated over and over again........reporters doing everything they could to help. Last nite, Anderson Cooper, a seasoned reporter, started to give his report and just started to cry. Its unbelievable what has happened. So much has been lost.

And a post from Yahoo about how a President should respond vs. how Bush actually did.

The day before Katrina makes landfall, Bush rides his bike for two hours. The day she hits, he goes to Johnnie McCain's birthday party; and lies to old people about the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company welfare boondoggle. People are dying, the largest port of entry in the United States (and fifth largest in the World) is under attack. Troops and supplies are desperately needed. The levees are cracking and the emergency 1-1/2 ton sandbags are ready, but there aren't enough helicopters or pilots to set them before the levees fail. The mayor of New Orleans begs for Federal coordination, but there is none, and the sandbagging never gets done. So Bush -- naturally -- goes to San Diego to play guitar with country singer and lie to the military about how Iraq is just exactly like WWII. The levees give way, filling New Orleans with water, sewage, oil and chemicals.Ten percent of all US exports, and 50% of all agricultural exports ordinarly go through this port. It is totally destroyed. Bush decides he'll end his vacation a couple of days early -- TOMORROW --BECAUSE HE HAS TICKETS TO A PADRES GAME! He goes back to the Fake Farm in Crawford, with every intention of doing something on WEDNESDAY about this disaster that happened starting last Sunday night.

Meanwhile, we're getting help from the U.N.... it's good to know that the rest of the world is not turning its back on us, after all we've put it through the last few years.

Labels: Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 3:45 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- The City Is On Fire

More from New Orleans:

The City is ON FIRE

Teams Alpha and Bravo finished the medium range recon and there are 3 separate locations on fire. We have pictures coming shortly.

During the recon, I spoke to some Federal Marshalls and NOPD. Morale is LOW. Very low. They're not seeing the military presence they say they were promised. I told those guys they can't possibly imagine how much we (the world) appreciate their dedication. I asked what civil rights the citizens have and the US Marshalls looked at me like I just fell off the turnip truck and chuckled. I asked if citizens can have guns for protection and he said if someone thinks he needs a gun, he should have already evacuated. He also said they are setting the city on fire.
The NOPD wants to know where "the two active duty brigades" were that he says they were told were supposed to arrive today. When I asked him what he would want to tell the world, he said Everyone keeps talking about the military presence in the city, and then asked me," Do you see any military around here" in dusgust.

We reconned our roof also, to get a better view of the city and took... I hesitate to call them "amazing" pictures. My city... it has been punched in the face and is on the canvas being counted out.

And yes, that's smoke you see out of the windows. The city is under a haze from the fires. Smoke and ash are floating miles away from the fires.

Labels: Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 1:45 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Bad News For People Who Like Bad News?

Some good news, from Steve Harris, although as he says, "Bad news for the democrats, the gasoline prices are going down..." The reason, if true?

Driving to work today, I didn't notice that the prices had gone down, but did notice that they hadn't gone up as much as I'd expected them to.

Labels: Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:55 AM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Four Bucks a Gallon?

Gas prices continue to rise... the Stewart's on New Scotland and Whitehall in Albany had super for $3.85 a gallon today, and the Mobil on the corner of New Scotland was "only" at $3.15 for regular this evening, but the clerk told me that they plan to raise the price to $3.59 tomorrow. My sister was poking around at gas stations today, and told me that the workers she spoke to said they had to raise the price, and they continue to lose 30 cents per gallon. The oil companies are price gouging, plain and simple. My prediction is four bucks by Monday. Friends of mine are already taking the bus and walking.

Combjelly is just too smart... so I'm going to quote an entire post of his about the relief efforts, or lack thereof, in its entirety:

The more I learn about this, the madder I get. Cat. 4 or Cat. 5 hurricanes are the ultimate acts of nature, all you can do is cope. But our ability to cope has been systematically and methodically gutted for the past 4 years. IMPACT was out right cancelled, presumably because it was a high profile and effective Clinton era program. But nothing replaced it. FEMA and Corp. of Engineers money has been diverted to other things. Maintenance work on the New Orleans levee system was stopped. The capper is that FEMA was instructed to stop all planning for coping with natural disasters, so we have no way to get prepared for dealing with something like this. 40% of the National Guardsmen from Louisiana are in Iraq. Essentially nothing happened on the national level until yesterday.

Hurricanes cannot be prevented. But they have the salient quality of taking time to get to where they are dangerous. Given that their destructiveness is known, they can be prepared for. Relief equipment, men and material can be prepositioned and readied for use on short notice. Hospital ships can be equipped and moving towards the area ahead of time. But it has to be coordinated on a national level. And it isn't like that is unprecedented, we have done these things in the past.

True, in an ideal world, everyone would evacuate. But the reality is that there are always those who won't or can't. Even if everyone is willing to evacuate, it takes time. Figures I have seen indicate that it would take at least 3 days to evacuate everyone from New Orleans. Predicting landfall for a hurricane 3 days out is impossible. While a few people can afford to evacuate every time a hurricane 3 days might make landfall dangerously close, those people are few. And New Orleans isn't alone in that. So there are going to be people trapped in any city that gets hit with a hurricane.

Nero might have fiddled while Rome burned. But Bush played the guitar while New Orleans drowned.

Labels: George Bush, Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:55 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- New Orleans Cries for Help

Thanks to Ted, from a blog in New Orleans:

Situtation is critical.

I'm not leaving, so stop asking. I'm staying. I am staying until this shitstorm has blown itself out. Period. End of discussion.

In case anyone in national security is reading this, get the word to President Bush that we need the military in here NOW. The Active Duty Armed Forces. Mr. President, we are losing this city. I don't care what you're hearing on the news. The city is being lost. It is the law of the jungle down here. The command and control structure here is barely functioning. I'm not sure it's anyone's fault -- I'm not sure it could be any other way at this point. We need the kind of logistical support and infrastructure only the Active Duty military can provide. The hospitals are in dire straights. The police barely have any capabilities at this point. The National Guard is doing their best, but the situation is not being contained. I'm here to help in anyway I can, but my capabilities are limited and dropping. Please get the military here to maintain order before this city is lost.

Labels: Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 4:00 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Gas Prices Rise

September 1st, 2005 -- 3:20 PM EST -- Albany, NYNews from a friend in Louisiana, who will be only known as CableMonkey, "I've heard that a riot has or had broken out at one of the major hurricane shelters in Monroe, LA." No media coverage yet, but similar activities are going on in New Orleans, which can't avoid the spotlight.

Am I right for bypassing the media on this, who clearly aren't reporting this type of news so as not to alarm the public? A group of bloggers in Virginia thinks there should be a code of conduct regarding this sort of thing. [EDIT: Maybe they're right, this story turned out to be untrue].

Gas prices in Troy, NY are at $3.31 for a gallon of regular now, and spot prices for a barrel of oil are over $100. $100!!!!

Labels: Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 3:20 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Humanitarian Disaster in New Orleans

It seems that thousands could be dead in New Orleans. A local TV station is keeping a blog of the events as they happen. This is all terrible, but don't say the Houston Chronicle didn't warn you! "

Due to the hurricane," (I'll explain the quotes in a podcast one of these nights) gasoline prices are going through the roof here; Terk called me to inform me that regular in Bay Shore, NY is $3.43/gal, and here, I've seen as high as $2.99. Bush warned us today to brace ourselves for higher prices at the pump, and also confirmed the reason we went to war in the first place. Or at least a VERY BIG reason. Salon doesn't think that Bush is doing a very good job of handling the situation.

To make a donation to the Red Cross, click here.

Labels: George Bush, Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 9:40 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany -- Supper's Ready!

I am completely swamped with work, needing to put in several more hours tonight to meet an AM deadline, but I didn't want to go a whole day without posting.

Looks like we took some relief too soon; Hurricane Katrina may very well be the biggest humanitarian disaster this country has seen since the Great Depression. I wish that I could show more empathy for the victims, but this is simply beyond anything I can comprehend... My heart is sick, but not as sick as it should be for the people, towns, and cities that have been devastated.

Katrina may exacerbate an already worsening situation; for the fourth year in a row, the poverty rate in the U.S. has risen.

The proverbial shit is hitting the fan in Israel; the Likud Party is in shambles while Labor scrambles to fill the void.

Pat Buchanan calls for the President's head on an issue very near and dear to him -- Wetbacks ;) .

I've been listening today to an album I've been trying to get my hands on for over a year, Genesis's Archive 1967-1975. It's great... especially a live version of the epic Supper's Ready. Genesis's music from the 1970s is unknown to most, but I highly recommend it.

Work time!

Labels: Economy, George Bush, Israel, Katrina, Music

posted by jbrzoska @ 10:45 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Sucking Babies

Hurricane Katrina has passed through New Orleans, and though it inflicted a great amount of damage, the city still stands. Though if the Bush administration had its way, it might not.

The Sunnis are having a difficult time ratifying a constitution which will leave them out of power after having total control over Iraq for 50 years. In Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, about 2,000 Sunnis are marching with signs which say, ""We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam." It's a shame we don't hear that kind of rhetoric in American political campaigns! "Martyrs for Obama in 2008!"

Hugo Chavez is calling for the head of Pat Robertson. Turnabout is fair play, eh?

The obscure ultra-Orthodox tradition of metzizah be peh, in which the mohel conducting a circumcision draws blood with his mouth, claims perhaps its first victim. In the category of headlines I couldn't make up if I tried, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency headline for this story this morning read, "Bris ritual still sucks."

And for an entire story I couldn't make up, AFP News tells the story of an Austrian town whose name AFP's editors won't even let it spell out.

Labels: Christianity, Iraq, Judaism, Katrina, Religion

posted by jbrzoska @ 10:45 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Katrina Not So Bad?

Things still look terrible for New Orleans, but perhaps not quite as much as expected.

Looks like the Bush administration policy of punishing those who disagree with it is still in effect.

The LA Times has an article today about some unexpected consequences of the bankruptcy bill, whose harsh effects may worsen if Krugman's predictions are correct.

posted by jbrzoska @ 8:50 AM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- The Blue Plate

I had a great dinner tonight at The Blue Plate in Chatham, NY. I'd been there once before, and was excited to go back. I had a really succulent leg of lamb after devouring an entire loaf of bread with their olive/mushroom/sundried tomato spread.

Thanks to Steve Harris from SI, we can see that Cindy Sheehan, joined here by the ever-loquacious Reverend Al Sharpton, is still getting a lot of attention from the media. That's great news, and I think Steve agrees. Thanks, Steve!

Andruw Jones jacked two more today, as Atlanta beat Milwaukee. The guy is just having a season far beyond what I'd expect from him, carrying the NL lead in both homers and RBI going into September. Meanwhile, I'd bet that Roger Clemens would've like to have Andruw as a teammate today, giving up no runs in 6 innings and lowering his ERA to a microscopic 1.51 but getting a no-decision as the Astros lost 1-0 to the mediocre Dodgers.

Labels: Iraq, Restaurants, Sports

posted by jbrzoska @ 10:15 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Uh Oh...

Katrina is approaching landfall around New Orleans, and the damage is expected to be devastating. Evacuation of the area is now mandatory.

We recognize Safia Taleb al-Souhail, a female activist in Iraq who is now Iraq's ambassador to Egypt, as the woman who sat with Laura Bush at the State of the Union address brandishing her purple thumb. Now, she's having second thoughts about her support for Bush, given the rapid deterioration of womens' rights under the interim Iraqi government, the insurgency, and the occupation.

And, those poor victimized Christians are hoping to rise up and secede from the Union, beginning in South Carolina. I say they can have it.

Labels: Iraq, Katrina

posted by jbrzoska @ 5:45 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Military Hecklers Don't Like Homos

Just when we thought Cindy Sheehan's 15 minutes might be up, things are coming to a head in Crawford. A small church in Smyrna, TN, is conducting a protest of its own, heckling military funerals, claiming that U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq because the U.S. is a country that harbors homosexuals. Speaking of Christians, how's this for irony in Basra?

The Deep South's one movie studio, the only one in the country where actresses are paid in beads, is in trouble... Hurricane Katrina is set to bear down on New Orleans.

I rarely watch TV news anymore, and was reminded why when I put on Meet the Press for a few minutes this morning. The guests were all high-ranking generals: Wesley Clark, Wayne Downing, Barry McCaffrey and Montgomery Meigs. Even they couldn't put their politics and talking points aside. They were all talking past each other, and in fact declined to answer Tim Russert on several occasions, saying, "You're asking the wrong question, Tim. The question you should be asking is..." Since when do the subjects tell the interviewers how to conduct the interview? I've been seeing this a lot.

Labels: Iraq, Katrina, TV

posted by jbrzoska @ 12:55 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post