A Match Made In Heaven

Oil companies are profiting from high prices engendered by the synergy of demand and chronic worry about terrorism, both of which are increasing robustly.

Meanwhile bankrupt airlines are falling financially like autumn leaves in Vermont due to fear of terrorism and high fuel prices.

Obviously the oil companies need to buy the airlines and provide jet fuel at manufacturer cost.

The higher the fear and demand the less airlines make but the more oil companies make. It's perfect.

Separated at birth?

Live Aid

"Live" as in hand grenade.

Post Katrina, many countries have offered aid to the Unites States.

This has to pose a deliciously difficult dilemma for our leaders. If they refuse the aid they look arrogant. Acceptance of the aid will send a message of weakness and vulnerability, with an uncomfortable frisson of third world desperation.

How will they spin this?

Chertoff's informal logic

DHS chief Darth Chertoff once again sunk his own talking points in a rough sea of contradiction today.

He proposes on the one hand that DHS is not at fault for being slow out of the gate because the hurricane was so unpredictable in course and power.

On the other hand he states that citizens of New Orleans should have known they had to get out of the city.

In order for both things to be true the citizens of New Orleans must have much better weather monitoring and prediction equipment than the Department of Homeland Security and its faithful sidekick FEMA.

Despite the fatal illogic of this, Chertoff never comes close to going off message. Scott McClellan better make sure his resume is up to date.

The future of hired transportation (Part 2)

I think I have my answer from the previous post. If only all those people at the convention center had the below press release! How irresponsible of them. Maybe someone should forward this to Chertoff.

From The Blackwater USA homepage :

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 01, 2005

BLACKWATER JOINS HURRICANE KATRINA RELIEF EFFORT!

This morning (September 1, 2005), Blackwater USA joined the ongoing relief effort in the Gulf Region devastated by Hurricane Katrina by dispatching a SA-330J Puma helicopter to help assist in evacuating citizens from flooded areas. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Erik Prince stated, “At this time, all
Americans should band together and assist our countrymen who have been struck by this natural disaster.”

The following services are available:

Airlift Services

Security Services

Communication Support

Crowd Control

Humanitarian Support Services

Logistics and Transportation Services

Anyone having a security or evacuation request may call (252) 435-2052/2488.

All requests shall be prioritized and acted upon as quickly as possible.

The future of hired transportation

Last night, during our approximately twelve hours a day of hurricane news viewing, we saw a very telling moment.

A camera crew was interviewing a surprisingly well-heeled and relaxed family. They had been visiting New Orleans so their son could look at a college, clearly Tulane, when they became trapped by the hurricane.

The mother seemed unconcerned for her pocketbook, and the family, surprisingly, didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry.

It turns out they were about to be taken out of the city by members of a "private security company."

This made me wonder how that was arranged. Did one of the parents call their law firm/investment bank employer and ask them to arrange to hire whatever part of Blackwater USA isn't in Iraq to extricate them? Or are well-armed private security company SUVs just cruising around NOLA like some kind of post-apocalyptic taxi service? Or maybe their hotel arranged it as some sort of high-end airport shuttle?

Thought provoking in any case.

Department of Homeland Talking Points

Michael Chertoff has his talking points. Unfortunately for him they make no sense.

He asserts with the dogged repetition of a press secretary that the hurricane and the flood are two separate and unconnected events. If you buy that then he hopes you'll buy the idea that no one could have predicted the two things happening in conjunction.

As part of this odd formulation he even says that the levee breach was just like a nuclear weapon going off in conjunction with the hurricane. (I guess a volcano or attack by space aliens would work here too.)

The problem with this logic is that flooding is an integral part of most hurricanes, and nuclear weapons are not.

Indeed, massive flooding of the below-sea-level city was predicted years ago in great detail by The New Orleans Times Picayune, National Public Radio, and even the federal government.

So, Chertoff, I may eventually be convinced that everything that could be done was done, but not that this situation wasn't anticipated.

More likely, since the correct logical starting assertion was that this situation was predicted, I and many other disillusioned Americans will continue to be furious at the inadequate response.

Point of spew

Can everyone try really hard to ask themselves how they'd feel if the shoe were on the other party's foot?

How would you feel if the Katrina situation were the same but Clinton were in charge?

I'm pretty sure I'd be just about as furious.

How about you?

Spiteful political cartoon idea

The photo ops of the First Gentleman and First Lady comforting Katrina victims made me wish I were a political cartoonist.

Here's the pitch, in case you know one:

George and Laura are at a Coney Island-style amusement park with their heads through the head-holes of a large board for the taking of a novelty photograph. On the front of the board are painted their own headless selves in the poses of victim comforting we're sure to see depicted on the front pages tomorrow.

Too harsh?

How the press found its guts (aka Ball 1)

Once upon a time an administration bungled a post-war occupation resulting in social chaos and death. When the 4th estate started asking hard questions they were accused of treason. Criticizing a war president is bad.

Once upon another time the same administration bungled a post-hurricane occupation resulting in social chaos and death.

But here's the important difference: it's open season on emergency managers up to and including the highest level of the executive branch because a hurricane doesn't have the get-out-of-impeachment-free card that a war has.

Watch CNN and prepare to be amazed. I even heard conservative Paula Zahn stick it to Michael Chertoff last night when he admitted ignorance of the New Orleans convention center situation until sometime yesterday when it was too late for a lot of people.

Making no mistake

Hard kernels of cliche meant to lend the appearance of strength and steadfastness spew forth from the powers that be on a regular basis. If you watch much news you'll recognize them instantly:

Up or down vote
We're not ruling anything in and we're not ruling anything out

But the greatest of these is "Make no mistake."

This seemed to preface every other statement from a military or administration official just after 9/11.

It's actually seductively fun to introduce statements in every day conversation with "make no mistake." Try it, but be careful not to get addicted.

"Make no mistake, this chicken is delicious! Make no mistake, I think it's about 8:30."

Maybe it's the Republican answer to the whimpiness of "sense." (see "Sensorrhea" below)

Well, now it's back in force, more hideous jetsam of Katrina's evil winds.

I guess I'm slow, because I've only just connected this chest-inflating introductory phrase to the semi-official position that this administration doesn't actually make mistakes.

I guess it's kind of a blessing, as in "we don't make any mistakes, so don't you start doing it either."

Will any mistakes be admitted to in the aftermath of this tragic, yet frequently predicted, mess? Accountability is fun.

Sensorrhea

As you listen to members of the press (especially NPR) interview politicians, experts, and each other, keep your ear out for the echolalic use of the word "sense."

"Can you give us a little sense of...?"
"Is there a sense there that...?"
"What's the sense of the sense of...?"

This may seem like a trivial point in the face of so much tragedy, but I believe language use is an important clue to worldview and motives.

This "sense" clue, I believe, begins to explain why the press is so tentative in their coverage of important stories, especially the questioning of public officials. Reporters could easily just drop the "senses" and go right to the question, but they generally don't.

Maybe it's laziness. People can be held responsible for getting facts wrong, but not "senses."

I think what this really reveals is a sad mistrust of reality, a defeatist, post-modern capitulation to the fluidity of fact. The corollary is a susceptibility to spin.

The result is the cowed, bourgeois press we have seen for the last few years. I hope the naked reality of Katrina will shake them out of it enough for them to hold certain people, and even certain popular ideas, responsible.

Some are more equal than others

The quickest way for a politician to shrug off irrefutable criticism is to claim that "everyone was doing it." If a Republican is accused of making outlandish negative political ads, they will quickly claim that the Democrats do the same thing. The question of degree, of whether the Republicans produce measurably more or more inaccurate ads than the other side, is too complicated to fit into what passes for mass media political dialog and is therefore never addressed in a wide forum.

A lot of people and political/economic ideologies are to blame for the mess New Orleans is in, going back to the original sin, the choice of location. This provides a lot of fodder for those who would minimize their own blame, a chronic habit of the Bush administration. Currently the response of the powers that be when pressed on who is responsible for the instant third world country (just add water!) we find on our gulf coast is "there'll be plenty of time for that discussion later." But we can be sure that once that discussion is in full swing every citation of the many clear warnings, FEMA budget cuts, tardiness of relief, etc. will be met with some conveniently parallel sin of the other side.

I can't wait to find out precisely how this is entirely Clinton's fault.

Single Prayer Health Care System

Thousands upon thousands of Katrina victims, most of them poor, need urgent and long term medical care. Their medical records are destroyed or unavailable.

They are clearly being treated for free now, but how long will that last? At what point will people discover that Katrina has swept them out of their "preferred provider area?" How much will the nation spend treating these people? How will the hospitals be set up again?

Suddenly a universal health-care system with national disaster contingency plans and safely archived easily accessible record keeping seems less like galloping socialism and more like a practical necessity.

Patron saint of filthy water

Is it ironic or appropriate that Dave Matthews has announced a Katrina benefit concert?

Debt of credit card companies

It is time the Credit Card companies pony up in return for their sweetheart bankruptcy legislation passed last session which takes effect on October 17. (Just in time to add extra misery to all the Katrina victims by foiling their inevitable bankruptcy claims !) Get this, it's actually entitled "Bankruptcy Reform and Consumer Protection Act."

Politicians should demand that they exempt from monthly interest or other charges all donations to the Red Cross and perhaps other charities in the name of Katrina relief.

Right now credit cards are the easiest, fastest way to donate, but many Americans are already shouldering too much credit card debt.

In addition, it is unseemly for these companies to make profits from kind hearts and human misery. They should stick to making money off compulsive consumerism and human shortsightedness.

What's with this century?

2000: Election chaos, Bush "elected"
2001: World Trade Center attack
2002: Invasion of Afghanistan
2003: Invasion of Iraq
2004: Bush re-elected, Madrid Bombing, Beslan tragedy
2005: Tsunami, London Bombing, Katrina

You get the point.

Mad Dads

Growing up, was your dad an angry dad? Were any of your friends' dads angry dads? If so, then you know the tone of voice and demeanor of a man who comes home from work and doesn't want to be bothered by his children. A man who doesn't know how to handle teenagers during a famliy dinner and creates a quiet, sullen fog throughout the household whenever he's around. I was always thankful my dad wasn't an angry dad whenever I was over at friends' houses run by mad dads.

Many a mad dad insists on being referred to as "sir" by his children if not his wife.

The reason I bring this up is that almost every official in Republican leadership gives me that mad dad feeling, especially at press conferences when anything they say or do is challenged. Even Condi Rice seems like a mad dad.

Cheney, of course, is the ultimate Mad Dad. Can you imagine what it was like for his daughter to come out to him as a lesbian?

Yet, in spite of the ubiquitous mad dad veneer, I constantly find myself asking where the real, responsible, grown-ups are in this administration.

Dumbocracy In Generica

Will George Bush be seen as the worst president in U.S. History? How soon?

Have the Straussian neocons and the Project for a New American Century now assured that this will be America's most ignoble century?

Will the nation ever recover from our current misguided brainless factionalism?

Will the media ever be able to criticize the powers that be without the appearance, real or accusatory, of bias?

Will my picayune peeves about NPR's style and substance ever be heard by the actual on-air "folks"?

What is the nature of our cultural decadence and can we dig our way out of it?

These are the kinds of questions you will find discussed here.